Facing a long wait for top surgery through New Zealand’s public health care system, a transgender teenager desperate to transition attempted a life-threatening mastectomy on himself.
A lack of funds for private gender-affirming care combined with the “significant psychological stress of having breasts at an upcoming pool party, pushed him to try the surgery himself,”
If you have to wait a year or more for medical care, and you cannot afford to jump the queue by going to a private practice, then I would argue that he is, in fact, being denied care.
Delayed care can absolutely be denied care, even if the delays aren’t intentionally weaponized against the patient.
Unfortunately healthcare is expensive and delays are not unusual. Italy has decent public healthcare overall, but my mom was still required to wait 9 months for a cat scan after a suspected stroke. It is the reality of many public facilities where funds get continuously slashed. If people wait for months and months for procedures needed for life-threatening conditions, I don’t see how other procedures (which are lower priority I would say) could not be delayed until much more funding is allocated to healthcare (which unfortunately is not very likely…).
True, but 10 years doesn’t seem to be a “queue” problem, I bet there are obstacles of different nature (like hoops to jump, additional agreements to get etc.), which all together lead to 10 years waiting. 9 months it was instead literally just the queue for a single test.
That said, someone who might have had a stroke might be dead in 9 months.
If you have to wait a year or more for medical care, and you cannot afford to jump the queue by going to a private practice, then I would argue that he is, in fact, being denied care.
Delayed care can absolutely be denied care, even if the delays aren’t intentionally weaponized against the patient.
Sounds like they ultimately found a way to jump the queue.
Omg the worst loophole. They earned it though.
Unfortunately healthcare is expensive and delays are not unusual. Italy has decent public healthcare overall, but my mom was still required to wait 9 months for a cat scan after a suspected stroke. It is the reality of many public facilities where funds get continuously slashed. If people wait for months and months for procedures needed for life-threatening conditions, I don’t see how other procedures (which are lower priority I would say) could not be delayed until much more funding is allocated to healthcare (which unfortunately is not very likely…).
9 months is not 10-12 years.
True, but 10 years doesn’t seem to be a “queue” problem, I bet there are obstacles of different nature (like hoops to jump, additional agreements to get etc.), which all together lead to 10 years waiting. 9 months it was instead literally just the queue for a single test.
That said, someone who might have had a stroke might be dead in 9 months.