<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>IMSAI8080</author><text>What? I have never seen these alleged &amp;quot;entitled gatekeepers&amp;quot;. I have been passed to specialists with no issue. The public sector healthcare is excellent and the same medical standard as is received in the private sector.&lt;p&gt;Let&amp;#x27;s talk about that price. So how does healthcare work out for you in the US system if you cannot pay for insurance? In a public sector system you still get healthcare just the same if your income is zero. The total tax cost for middle (or even higher) earners in European countries is often less than equivalent private insurance premiums paid in the US. In private sector systems you still ending up paying out of pocket even when you are &amp;quot;covered&amp;quot; with those deductibles. So your overall cost is even higher. Don&amp;#x27;t forget in the US you still pay taxes for healthcare for schemes like Medicare so don&amp;#x27;t forget to add that on when doing comparisons. What does the typical private insurance policy say about pre-existing conditions and congenital disorders? You&amp;#x27;re fully covered in public sector healthcare. What if you suffer from an expensive illness? You may find your insurance premiums increase. Your taxes don&amp;#x27;t increase in public sector healthcare regardless of what illness you have.</text><parent_chain><item><author>imiric</author><text>Please. I&amp;#x27;ve been through medical systems in several European countries, and the GP system is frustratingly bad. GPs will at best prescribe you some medication, but will otherwise act as entitled gatekeepers to the rest of the system. Unless you&amp;#x27;re bleeding on their table, they&amp;#x27;ll do their best to avoid sending you to a specialist. They&amp;#x27;ll engage in the same charlatanism that GP is talking about.&lt;p&gt;Healthcare in Europe is not free. You&amp;#x27;re taxed for it quite highly.&lt;p&gt;Calling this system &amp;quot;healthcare&amp;quot; is too generous. It only exists to keep people from complaining, and healthy enough so they can be productive enough to be taxed. There is no care.</text></item><item><author>danmaz74</author><text>This is so skewed towards the US. Eg here in Europe people go to their GP much more often because those visits are free, and hard data says we live longer than in the the US. So the problem isn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;doctors&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;medicine&amp;quot;, the problem is the US medical system.</text></item><item><author>mrangle</author><text>A half-lifetime of experiencing and observing modern medicine, in good faith, has taught me that participating in the medical system while not in need of emergency care is risking one&amp;#x27;s health and life.&lt;p&gt;Assuming that one doesn&amp;#x27;t engage in risky behavior, the smartest path is to avoid the medical system altogether. That doesn&amp;#x27;t mean &amp;quot;seek alternative medicine&amp;quot;. It&amp;#x27;s just what I said.&lt;p&gt;The Medical system doesn&amp;#x27;t highlight its failures. It obscures them, and only speaks in bullshit PR terms. Its failures (premature suffering and death) are almost always attributed to causes other than the malpractice that caused them. Even families are hoodwinked.&lt;p&gt;Laugh at anyone quoting &amp;quot;evidence&amp;quot; without citing it for critique. The medical profession hasn&amp;#x27;t had broadly-intact scientific integrity for decades.&lt;p&gt;Much of medicine is charlatanism for billing. Doctors know this though most won&amp;#x27;t admit it. The consequences range from annoyance, to minor malfunction, to catastrophic.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>TV doctors say annual checkups save lives – real doctors call bullshit (2016)</title><url>https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/9/26/13029358/annual-physical-tv-doctors-america</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>saiya-jin</author><text>What we have in much of Europe is mostly a dream compared to clusterfuck that US healthcare is. US has by far the highest costs globally, unavoidable even if insured. People here never think &amp;#x27;should I go to doctor, can I afford treatment&amp;#x27;. Thats 3rd world country stuff.&lt;p&gt;Yes we pay for it, &lt;i&gt;much&lt;/i&gt; less than US, but its not part of our net salary so nobody actually cares, this topic is simply not discussed by commin folks, and you can easily see how much stress it causes even to wealthy US folks.&lt;p&gt;We treat people in same way regardless of their origin, wealth, status, even homeless get top notch care if they dont run away from it.&lt;p&gt;Something in your words tell me you are not a standard patient.</text><parent_chain><item><author>imiric</author><text>Please. I&amp;#x27;ve been through medical systems in several European countries, and the GP system is frustratingly bad. GPs will at best prescribe you some medication, but will otherwise act as entitled gatekeepers to the rest of the system. Unless you&amp;#x27;re bleeding on their table, they&amp;#x27;ll do their best to avoid sending you to a specialist. They&amp;#x27;ll engage in the same charlatanism that GP is talking about.&lt;p&gt;Healthcare in Europe is not free. You&amp;#x27;re taxed for it quite highly.&lt;p&gt;Calling this system &amp;quot;healthcare&amp;quot; is too generous. It only exists to keep people from complaining, and healthy enough so they can be productive enough to be taxed. There is no care.</text></item><item><author>danmaz74</author><text>This is so skewed towards the US. Eg here in Europe people go to their GP much more often because those visits are free, and hard data says we live longer than in the the US. So the problem isn&amp;#x27;t &amp;quot;doctors&amp;quot; or &amp;quot;medicine&amp;quot;, the problem is the US medical system.</text></item><item><author>mrangle</author><text>A half-lifetime of experiencing and observing modern medicine, in good faith, has taught me that participating in the medical system while not in need of emergency care is risking one&amp;#x27;s health and life.&lt;p&gt;Assuming that one doesn&amp;#x27;t engage in risky behavior, the smartest path is to avoid the medical system altogether. That doesn&amp;#x27;t mean &amp;quot;seek alternative medicine&amp;quot;. It&amp;#x27;s just what I said.&lt;p&gt;The Medical system doesn&amp;#x27;t highlight its failures. It obscures them, and only speaks in bullshit PR terms. Its failures (premature suffering and death) are almost always attributed to causes other than the malpractice that caused them. Even families are hoodwinked.&lt;p&gt;Laugh at anyone quoting &amp;quot;evidence&amp;quot; without citing it for critique. The medical profession hasn&amp;#x27;t had broadly-intact scientific integrity for decades.&lt;p&gt;Much of medicine is charlatanism for billing. Doctors know this though most won&amp;#x27;t admit it. The consequences range from annoyance, to minor malfunction, to catastrophic.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>TV doctors say annual checkups save lives – real doctors call bullshit (2016)</title><url>https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/9/26/13029358/annual-physical-tv-doctors-america</url></story>