this post was submitted on 28 Dec 2024
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[–] sunbrrnslapper@lemmy.world 17 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (19 children)

I don't have good line of sight into what happens outside of the US, but are cancer treatments unlimited for those in single payer systems? Even if the person requires treatment for years? Just wondering how it works (forgive my ignorance)!

[–] RegalPotoo@lemmy.world 10 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

Sort of.

I live in New Zealand, so this is hyper specific to how our healthcare system is set up, other countries will have radically different systems.

The way it works in NZ is that all hospital visits are free, and all medicine dispensed within the hospital are free. Visits to your GP are free if you are under 16, over 65 or pregnant. Medicines prescribed by your GP have a price cap ($100NZ/year/person iirc), as long as they are on the "Pharmac" list.

The 2 main caveats to this:

  • Hospitals don't have infinite capacity. If you need non-acute treatment (ie, you aren't going to suffer serious harm by not getting treated immediately), you could easily be waiting a year to see a specialist
  • Pharmac. The way the government ensures that drug prices stay affordable is by giving a government agency a big chunk of cash, and telling them to use it to buy the drugs that are going to have the best "bang for the buck", and use the bulk purchase negotiating power to get as good a price as possible - hospitals pretty much exclusively prescribe Pharmac drugs because they don't have the budget to buy anything else. This means that in general, if you've got something common, the drugs you'll need will probably be on the Pharmac list and you'll not have to pay anything, but if it's rare, or you want a newer more expensive treatment, or you just get unlucky and need a drug that Pharmac doesn't cover you can be in a really hard spot.

Private medical insurance does exist, and is pretty much there to let you "skip the queue" - there are private hospitals not funded by the government that employ their own specialists (who typically also work in the public system) - or to fund drugs that Pharmac won't. Is fairly common in mid-end white collar jobs (especially finance and tech) to have private insurance paid for by your employer, but is pretty much just there for "what if I get an exotic cancer" or "what if I fuck up my knee and don't want to have to wait a few months for surgery". My wife needed her gall bladder removed a couple of years ago, and we just used the public hospital even though we do have insurance that might have paid for private - the public system is excellent for 95% of things.

[–] TheOctonaut@mander.xyz 4 points 7 months ago

This is a great explainer but I do want to let you know I chuckled at "mid-end".

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