Honestly depends.

If it's life or death urgent, an ambulance arrives, takes you away and with any luck, fix you right up. Visitors will likely have to pay to park at the hospital, and that will be your biggest expense. When my dad had a cardiac arrest, it was during covid, so the parking was free. The biggest expense was cleaning his blood off the carpets and putting their cat in the cattery for a week.

If it's something non-urgent, and the cause isn't immediately found by a doctor, then you might go on a waiting list and be seen in a few months maybe. And even then it might not get sorted. It's not like House.

The most annoying bit is the 8am phone roulette to try and get an appointment.

From US and was visiting Singapore when I came down with a sinus infection.

Took the elevator from the government controlled housing to the ground floor.

Walked 5 minutes to the attached small community strip mall which consisted of cheap food options, a grocery/convenience store, and a number of essential stores including a small drs office.

Waited 15 minutes, saw the dr. Explained my condition, allergies and medication I usually take and went through the exam. We had to help look up some of the medication names.

Paid $35 for the exam. There was some confusion because I expected it to cost more and I asked about. They apologized and said that since I’m foreign I had to pay full price.

Walked across the mall to the small pharmacy. Waited 5 minutes for the antibiotics prescription. Paid maybe $5?

Bought some tea from the grocery and was better over a few days.

People from the US who travel and need healthcare know very well our system is the worst.

I call my Dr.

I book an appointment. If urgent but not medically urgent to my immediate wellbeing I can get in in a week or so.

If urgent, but not emergency, I can go to a clinic or the hospital non emergency (hospital can have wait times up to several hours)

If emergency and severe or traumatic injury or life threatening - emergency at hospital. Triage assesses need. Last time I had to take someone it was maybe a 20 minute wait - they had been hurt pretty bad - got jumped.

None of any of the above will cost me any money.

An ambulance, though, costs like 75$ if it is not life threatening.

Canada.

Germany. When I am sick I call my doctor in the morning ask what time would be best to go there as to not wait too long. Then I go there, wait maybe an hour sometimes because he likes taking time for his patients, tell him my symptoms, get a sick note for work and possibly a prescription if I need medication.

I dont pay anything for the visit. If I need medication I will go to the pharmacy near my flat after the visit give them my health card, get my medication and depending on what drug I got pay a little bit, maybe 5€ , maybe a bit more.

Give them a call. Generally get an appointment within 2 days.
Get told to take paracetamol for 2 weeks and make another appointment if the problem persists.

Drs are generally on time maybe 10 min behind but when I was in Australia they would regularly get up to an hour late.

Costs are generally subsidied by the national government so unless something comes up unexpectedly there is no cost. If something does then you pay a fee and your private health takes care of the rest.

The Netherlands

I call my doctor, make an appointment the same day, go there, tell my story, get referred to a specialist or get meds or whatever, all covered by insurance.

Specialist: sometimes appointment within a week or 2, sometimes it takes a month. It's covered by insurance, but there's an own risk budget each year of 380 euros. So all costs up to that budget are paid by yourself, the rest is covered. But since I'm getting mental health care, I pay 380 each januari and the rest for the entire year is all covered. This year I've had a broken collarbone repaired with a metal plate with all the photos before and after, I had 2 bladder infections which needed antibiotics and I had food poisoning on holiday and intestand infection, which was all covered at home and abroad.

Insurance

I pay 180 a month. It includes dental and some extras like 9 physical therapist appointments.

German here.

If I'm sick I just go to their practice during consultation hours. Without an appointment I have to wait a little, but rarely more than an hour. Then I get called in, the doctor takes a couple minutes to listen to me describing my symptoms, possibly does some minor checking, then writes me a prescription for whatever treatment I will need or a transfer slip to a specialized doctor.

For emergencies I can just go to the hospital. Oh, all of this costs me nothing at all, maybe a couple euros co pay for medications.

Brazil:

Call an Uber, go to the hospital, grab a ticket, pass thru triage, called by name, show my id, triage decide which specialist to see, go to specialist waiting room and wait to be called by name.

Doctor examines me, ask for exams, maybe prescribe medication, do the exams, wait for result.

Back to doctor, prescribe medication, hospital provides medication (unless is something very uncommon, if so go to the pharmacy and buy it).

Call Uber, go home.

Total cost: Uber fare, usually about 6 dollars total.

Sweden.

A few alternatives:

• I could book an appointment at the local health center. I would probably get a time at the earliest next week, and it would cost me $30. Health center doctors are generally quite overworked, and can sometimes be a bit dismissive of your issues in my experience, but they will help you. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral, which could take several months depending on the priority of the case and the type of specialist.
• I could use an app to get access to a video call with a doctor, after having described my symptoms in the app. I would get a video call the same day and it would cost me $30. Given the remote nature of this kind of contact, they can be a bit limited in what they can do for you, but will try to help you regardless. If your case requires in-person examination, they will ask you to go to a health center instead. If you need specialist care, they will give you a referral and you'll have to wait the same amount of time as for a referral in the health center scenario.
• I am lucky enough to have a private health insurance plan through my employer. If I have any problems, I'll submit them to this private health insurer, and they put a human on the case and connects me with a specialist right away if the problem warrants one. Typically this happens the same or the next day. This costs me nothing, apart from what I pay in benefit taxes to be on the private health insurance plan.

All in all, things work fairly well in Sweden, but having gotten private health insurance has definitely jaded me a bit on account of how much better the experience is when you have that. If only the public system wasn't systematically underfunded and run by the dumbest politicians on offer in the country, then maybe everyone could have great patient experience.

French here. when sick, I use an app to book a appointment to a medical center I have that's like 5 minutes away by foot ( not typical for all french residents but I am quite lucky with where I live). I usually have an appointment in the next 2 to 4 hours tops. Depending on what it is, I walk away with a prescription and certificate for work stating how many sicks days I have. This costs me nothing, appart from the occasional optional medication that is not reimbursed.

United Kingdom, Dorset.

My 3 year old daughter was vomiting and not keeping liquids down. Phoned the non-emergency line and after a bit of a wait, spoke to them and went through the script.

Was told to go to A&E and we would be expected. After a short wait there, was led down to the children's ward and she was given a bed in her own room. She was put on a drip, had antibiotics and kept in overnight. By the end of the following day she was able to keep down water and some toast so was discharged.

Had a follow on call from a GP the next day, she was back to normal in a couple of days.

Cost: £0 (I contribute to the NHS through general taxation)

Norway, I book online if it's not urgent and wait a few weeks. If it's urgent I call them and get it same day. Costs about ~250 NOK or ~20 USD I think. Public doctors are always at least 45 minutes late (unless you are late if course, then they call you on time)

I also had a non-urgent matter, but felt like wait time was too long (holiday season) so I went to a private clinic, got appointment same day and paid about 700 NOK I think.

I go there, tell my story, if they need to take some samples they can usually do them on site right away for no additional charge.

If I need some medicine they prescribe that and tell me to come back in x weeks if it's not getting better.

If they can't help me I get a referral. It could take a long time to get certain procedures, especially if they are not urgent/very important, but most of the time it's been a few weeks for my issues.

UK. Phone local GP, no appointments available for ~3 weeks, maybe get a call back appointment in 2 weeks if I'm lucky. Alternative is to phone every morning between 0830-0900 and either not get through or be told there are still no appointments available.

I have found walk in pharmacists to be well educated (better than many GPs?!) and available without appointment so they're usually my first port of call.

Brazil.

If I'm at home and simply unwell, I can walk to the neighborhood clinic (one specific clinic based on my address) and get checked - that usually takes half an hour to a couple hours, but it may not always have a doctor available.

So most people skip the local clinic completely and go to a municipal hospital instead (something doctors often plead people not to do). These should always have a couple doctors available and they'll see anybody - even if you have no documents. When you get there a nurse will check your pulse and stuff and ask some questions to determine your priority level, then the waiting time can go up to 4 hours if it's low priority.

If you need specific exams, that will depend on how well equipped the hospital is. Many will do it right there, some will request it from other cities and that may take time, so there's the option of doing it in private clinics too.

No matter what you may end up needing, if you do it through the public health system you won't need to pay anything at all. Even experimental treatments and surgeries can get arranged. But there's always the option of going to private clinics as well. Those can have much shorter waiting times.

Based on my limited experience, this is what people seem to do for each kind of visit:

Emergencies: pretty much everybody go to public hospitals. Most places don't even have private options for this.

Basic check up: most people will use the public system first, unless it's something very specific and they are well financially.

Dental care: most people who won't be financially crippled by it will go private. People tend to stick with the same dentist once they find a good one. On the public system you never know who you might be seeing.

Eye doctor: 50/50. There are nearly as many private options for this as there are for dental care, but a lot of them suck.

Expensive exams and operations: people will try to get them for free at first, or through some Health insurance plan they may have from work. Everybody knows someone who's been waiting months for something on the public system.

From south Brazil.For something not urgent I can usually get a private GP within a week or a specialist within a month.For something a bit more urgent, usually 1-2 hours in a private hospital, or 2-6 hours in a public one.When going private the health insurance has always covered everything, so no cost.Never had an emergency so I can't say how it is.

United Kingdom (Bristol.)

Used to be pretty decent, but now the NHS is chronically overbooked and underfunded. Ambulances can take hours to come.

Only way to get a GP appointment is to literally call my practice at 8AM on the dot, wait in the queue and hope you're lucky to have your call answered before all the appointments are gone. There is no online booking system, and if you call at any other time, they won't be able to book you in advance unless you're willing to wait months.

My dad (80 years old) has had to go to hospital a few times in the past few years for various reasons, and the longest he's had to wait to be admitted into a ward was 13 hours. He had a hip replacement operation two years ago where he was on an 18 month waiting list.

Portugal

If it doesn't require immediate attention I call my health center. I can get an appointment with my family pshysician in a few days or, if it's more urgent, some other doctor will see me the same day but I'll have to wait there until one is free (can go anywhere between 15mn and 2 hours). I'm lucky though, some health centers suck really bad. The ones in big cities are generally better.

If it's more urgent I call the national health line and they'll A: tell me how to treat it myself B: set up an appointment in my health center (or another if mine is not available) C: send me straight to the closest emergency room.

Wait times in the emergency room depend on the gravity and the hospital. My hospital sucks. Low priority you'll spend there the whole day, easy. 10+ hours. Medium priority you'll wait 4 or 5 hours. High priority about an hour, maybe two. Very high priority (head falling off) you go right in. In good hospitals those times are much lower. In the major city I used to live I never waited more than 2 hours for any priority. I also had surgery there and it was great.

Never paid a cent, I think it goes without saying.

Slovakia

Notify my employer that I won't show up, go to doctor and wait in the waiting room. When the nurse shows up, give her the insurance card and wait for your turn. They'll check you, and if it's nothing special (requiring a specialist), you'll probably get prescription for some meds to pick up.
Then you get those in a pharmacy. Either it's electronic, or if the system is once again broken, you hand them the Rx paper that the Dr. gives you in that case. And then you figure out what you're about to pay. A lot of things will be fully covered by insurance, but potentially you'll have to copay. There's also a chance the Dr. tells you to get something that isn't covered, like some specific eyedrops, cough meds, probiotics (if you have antibiotics for example), etc.

The pharmacist may recommend a cheaper alternative, will likely tell you recommended dosage, tell you that once again this specific Dr. prescribed something that hasn't been manufactured for the past 30 years, and in the rare case, tell you the prescription seems dangerous and to contact the Dr.
And also decrypt any handwriting/encoding.

Germany:
I call the office
I schedule a time (and maybe a date if it's not urgent)
I go there
I get my treatment (advice), a prescription and if needed when to reschedule
I go to the apothecary and redeem my medication (usually without extra charges. But some arent subsidized 100% and you need to pay the remaining)
I get better again
I start working

in my city (southeastern Brazil) we have two facilities for public healthcare: the emergency center (UPA - unidade de pronto atendimento, emergency medical unit) and the family health center (UBS - unidade básica de saúde, basic health unit)

at the UBS I can see a doctor or a nurse, get prescriptions, get referred to specialists and exams/tests, IST tests, and so forth, if I'm not in meed of urgent care

at the UPA I can be treated (rather) quickly if I'm in an emergency

a few weeks ago my uncle had a heart attack. it was nothing serious, thankfully. we called the ambulance and in 5 minutes they were here, he was treated quickly, sent to another city nearby for emergency catheterism and angioplasty, and he paid a total amount of zero reais for everything

I love SUS (sistema universal de saúde - universal healthcare system)

UK.

Until recently, if I wanted an appointment I had to phone the GP surgery the moment it opened at 8:30 in the morning, wait in a phone queue for ten minutes or so before I got to speak to a receptionist who'd give me an appointment with which ever GP had some free time that day. It wasn't usually possible to book an appointment several days in advance.

A couple of months back they switched to an app which gives much more flexibility, allows you to choose which doctor you want to see and allows you to book appointments in advance. I do worry that they're going to push everyone to use that since old gippers are likely to struggle with the app unless they're semi-tech savvy. Also, it's obvious to me that they're setting this up to use AI to triage requests if they're not already doing that.

Appointments always used to be face to face but since covid they're increasingly phone consultations especially for follow-ups. If it's a first, diagnostic appointment it's still likely to be face to face though.

For face to face, the wait time is generally less than half an hour from the point I get to the GP surgery.

Obv. it's free at the point of use. I've paid my taxes.

Edit to add: if you're on low income, or are a child, old, etc you get your prescriptions free. Otherwise you have to pay for them at £9.90 per 2 month prescription. I'm on a shitload of medication and that would normally cost me well over £500 a year, but I get a prepayment certificate which costs me £114.50 a year and covers all medication.

Canadian here. My son just had an ear infection that was lasting 3 days. On the 3rd morning we called our doctors office to have it checked. They were able to squeeze us in at noon. Took him, and they couldn't tell if it was viral or bacterial, so suggested we wait and see if it clears. Didn't clear after another 2 days, but it was the weekend now. Called 811 and they contacted a medical center to make us an appointment in the morning. Next morning (Sunday now) office called us, made an appointment and saw him again. This time we got a prescription for some antibiotics.

I've taken a course about anti-microbial resistance and I understand that doctors are instructed not to go with antibiotics first thing so it didn't really bother me to go back a second time. It was nice they it was easy to be seen again even if it wasn't with the family doctor.

I'm an American, but when I lived in Japan, I needed to go to the doctor a few times. Honestly, the experience isn't great aside from it being cheap.

For example, I herniated a disc in my neck at one point and needed to go to the emergency department. I got there just after 10:00 a.m. and was told that they stop accepting patients at 10:00. "Fortunately", I was unable to hold my head up straight, so they decided to see me anyway. The appointment was just over the equivalent of $20 at the time. They prescribed a muscle relaxer and sent me on my way. The prescription could be filled a block or two away and was pretty quick and only cost about 10 bucks. (Edit: I should note that this was a very temporary solution. The problem lasted for years.)

Another time, I went to a clinic to try to get a sinus infection treated. I had/have a history of chronic sinus infections. Despite speaking pretty good Japanese and having a dictionary with me, I could not get them to understand the concept of a sinus infection. They put me on a nebulizer and then sent me home. Obviously not helpful. Don't remember what it cost.

Poland:

If I'm sick or it's the 1st step in getting something diagnosed: I call the (public) clinic to book an appointment, get a date within like 3 days max. I usually leave with a prescription and paid doctor's leave for work. The visit costs nothing. If it's urgent you can walk in without an appointment or call the ambulance/go to the ER in your local hospital. This is free.

Sometimes the doctor gives you a medical referral to a specialist or for a certain test. This can be realized in the public health system, or at a private clinic.

Wait times vary a lot - some things like a blood test are very quick, but some specialists in the public system have very long wait times. Like, 6 months to a year. Some surgeries in the public system can take even longer. The public system is free, or has a small symbolic fee.

The private system is much faster for certain specialists - dentists, psychologists, dermatologists, injury rehabilitation, ect. but it also can't do everything. In my experience, almost all serious and niche surgeries are done in the public system for example.

Overall it's a decent experience, but the system is severely underfunded. This isn't really a case of mismanagement imo, it's genuinely just a lack of money in the system. Some surgeries can get delayed because money allocated for them ran out for the year.

Australia

• for non-urgent regular things book with my GP in an app (pretty sure that’s the case for most GPs too). usually an appointment within a few days; sometimes he’s booked out for a couple of weeks, but if i don’t feel like waiting i can book anywhere else. when i go to my appointment, tests etc are all free. i go to a private clinic so i pay $75AUD (~$50USD) and the govt reimburses me $45 of that - public clinics are free but i go to a speciality clinic
• for non-urgent sick things (or anything really - scripts etc too; i just use it when i don’t want to go to my GP) we have home doctor service: you book in an app and a doctor will come to your house the same day - free
• for specialists the waiting period can depend on what it is, but i have had a 3mo wait for a specialist before :(… usually you go to your GP, get a referral, see a specialist, then perhaps have surgery if necessary. it can be a months long wait for surgeries which is not great, buuuuut it’s also great to go in for day surgery in the morning, and just leave later that day without paying a cent
• for emergency, unfortunately you can be waiting for a few hours… they triage you so i’m sure if it’s a real issue you wouldn’t keep you waiting but for things like potentially broken bones you can be waiting for up to 3hr… it’s all free
• for ambulance it differs per state but in my state (victoria) they aren’t - it’s ~$1400 for an emergency trip. you can also buy ambulance membership for $53/y and it’s free

pretty much anything where i’ve talked about costs or free you give them your medicare (federal health system for everyone - not just low income etc) details and they bill the govt a set amount for time and materials used. GP clinics etc store it on file so sometimes you can just walk out without talking to anyone

Netherlands here, I call, have an appointment the same or next day, insurance covers all costs.

If they proscribe meds, I pay a part up until a maximum of 385 euros per year (called "own risk") , anything above that is covered as well.

I'm also covered for physiotherapy (18 sessions without "own risk"), psychological therapy, dentistry and a variety of alternative medicine!

I pay a pretty hefty premium, like 170 euros a month, but that's because I have the lowest "own risk" and I blow through that in the first month or 3 with my rickety ass body 😂

Definitely beats footing the bill completely, I've seen what dentistry costs 😱