When my brother died prematurely in July of last year at 50, three months after my mother died prematurely at 69, I made a doctor's appointment. It seemed I just *might* have something to worry about.
When I called in August, the soonest appointment my established primary care doctor had was in...November. Awesome.
In October, his office called to reschedule because he was going to be on medical leave. Gulp. (Yeah, in all honestly, when I'd seen him in February, I had wanted to get off the exam table to help HIM. He was not looking well.)
I rescheduled for...May.
Evidently, he wasn't doing much better because they called again in February to reschedule for...July. That's right. At this point we were nearly a YEAR after I'd originally requested an appointment.
And likely in part due to his absence, the office is oversubscribed for the providers they have on staff because when Jose called to request an appointment, the soonest availability for HIS doctor is...February of next year.
I decided it was time to find a new practice and went to my insurer's Find A Doc tool.
Jose's AND my doctor are listed as "accepting new patients."
Like, WTF?
When liberals were making noise in my youth—30 years ago!—about implementing "socialized medicine," opponents screamed that we'd have healthcare rationing and you wouldn't be able to see a doctor when you needed to.
Well...
We still don't have universal, single payer healthcare that is independent of employment status. AND, even if you have insurance, it takes more than half year to see a doctor.
Good job, free market capitalists. We're free to die of preventable disease while we wait to get a prescription for cheap, generic blood pressure meds.
