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Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?

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Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?

#1

Post by throwawaaaaay17 »

I've been dealing with a serious health issue that is a major problem in my life, I am in constant pain, I can barely work. My experience with the US healthcare system has been abysmal - I go to a doctor, the doctor sends me to get tests, it's 3 weeks, after that another 3 weeks to see a specialist, 3 weeks more for more tests, etc, etc. I've been ping-ponged around for 4 months with little progress in terms of diagnosis.

I'm sure that there is a way to buy better healthcare. Surely Satya Nadella doesn't have to go through this. What I would love to do is pay a large amount of money ($50K out of pocket not counting insurance for just the diagnosis) and go through all of the doctors/tests in two weeks. Does anyone know where I can do that? The US would be best, but can travel internationally for this too.

Would appreciate any pointers people might have, I don't even know what to Google. If necessary, the issue is neck-spine related, relevant doctors might be neurologist, rheumatologist, spine surgeon, etc.

Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?

#3

Post by codegeek »

Look into medical tourism if that's an option for you. Country like India is a great choice for the money. They have excellent hospitals and doctors for a fraction of the cost of US healthcare. I say this as an Indian American who has lived in the US for half of my life. Don't be fooled by "Oh India is 3rd world". Not when it comes to Healthcare (if you have some money which will always be much less than what you need in the US), telecommunications and banking.

US is just not an option if you cannot deal with Insurance or don't have enough money. Unfortunately.

Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?

#4

Post by askonomm »

Private clinics/hospitals in Europe can do this, and I'm assuming at a lot less of a price than 50k. I always go to private clinics in Europe and for getting your entire body tested costs, in Estonia, maybe a few thousand USD. I recommend Confido (https://www.confido.ee/en/). No health insurance or residency or anything required, just make an appointment, and pay for it. That's it.

In Spain I was very happy with Sanitas (http://sanitas.es/).

Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?

#6

Post by electric_mayhem »

Direct Primary Care might be a good place to start: https://www.dpcare.org/

I gave it a try last fall, and the difference is night and day: my current Dr actually works for me, whereas the last one very obviously worked for my insurance company.

Rereading your post, this is exactly what you want. He had me do a whole bunch of tests right off the bat and set about optimizing different things. His job is to keep my body working well, and he takes it seriously. In-network docs are, in my experience, mainly about hitting arbitrary metrics imposed by insurance companies.

Re: Ask HN: How can you buy high quality healthcare?

#9

Post by throwawaaaaay17 »

askonomm wrote: post #4

Private clinics/hospitals in Europe can do this, and I'm assuming at a lot less of a price than 50k. I always go to private clinics in Europe and for getting your entire body tested costs, in Estonia, maybe a few thousand USD. I recommend Confido ( https://www.confido.ee/en/ ). No health insurance or residency or anything required, just make an appointment, and pay for it. That's it. In Spain I was very happy with Sa…

Thank you!
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