I had my pick of three ortholaryngologists today (all of them less than ideal according to reviews, but they were there).
I presume that's only when you want your expenses covered. If you pay with your own money/private insurance you can see whoever you want, no?
The article is about UK doctors not recognizing PANDAS as a real illness.
They even quote one doctor who refused to treat "an American illness".
The US NIH has a page on PANDAS and our (US) diagnostic and treatment recommendations here: https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/pandas
If you wanted an example of "US healthcare bad" then this is not it. The article is about UK doctors not recognizing a condition and the activities in Parliament to address the situation.
I know, I read it before commenting.
I'm not saying the article is about the US system. I'm saying the comment I responded to appeared to say that the US system is better, and how those countries with other systems like the UK have it bad.
"Doctors not recognizing X as a real illness" can happen, and has, anywhere. It's not a result of how the medical system is structured with regard to public/private, universal healthcare or not, and so on.
There is no shortage of stories from the US about doctors refusing to take some illness or condition as real that was later proven otherwise (or vise versa), dismissing patient concerns that were later proven, and so on.
Your last sentence (minus the specific country) is exactly what I was talking about. There is no shortage of stories where doctors don't get it right for a million reasons. There is room for improvement.
The US one I presume? Says who? Based on what metric? We can, and other countries have, do much better.
That this parent "is “exhausted” by years spent campaigning to get doctors to take the illnesses seriously" doesn't say much.
It's not like she had to go the public health system and didn't have the option to go on "individual doctors for primary care" if she could afford it (in fact it would have been way more affordable than in the US).
She campaigned to spread awareness for the cause, not for them to treat her own special case.
Second, the average person would be much more exhausted when chacing their own (or kid's) treatment trying to afford hellishly expensive treatment in the US, sacrificing their kids college fund or their own pension (or even ending in bankruptcy (CNBC: "Two-thirds of people who file for bankruptcy say medical bills or other issues related to illness contributed to their financial downfall").