Why does it take so long to get an appointment with a specialist?

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How is this a thing when there are conditions that could likely get drastically worse in between the symptoms showing and the actual appointment date? And also people getting no assurance it’s not something life threatening causing extra anxiety and stress?

I have no expertise in economics or the medical industry so I’d appreciate any insights.

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11 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There are two components, one that’s universal and one that’s more specific to America.

First, the universal one. Doctors, like any human, only have so much time in the day. If there are more people who want/need to see a specialist in a given physical area than there are doctors with that speciality it simply takes time to fit in to the schedule.

Second, the American one. Because insurance companies will do everything they can to not pay for it. Specialists are expensive. For profit health care doesn’t like expensive because, well, they are for profit, and the less money they have to spend the more money they can keep as profits. So using any and every means legally possible (and sometimes illegal too) to deny or delay care works in their favor. Especially since you can’t really switch insurers whenever you feel like it, especially since insurers will try and use pre-existing conditions to either charge you drastically higher rates and/or deny you coverage at all.

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