In the US this isn't how it works. You can't see whoever you want unless you have a really, really good plan. Otherwise, you need referrals. And lots of specialists won't see you without a referral anyway.
And, the wait is often on the order of months. I know that's something people complain about in the UK but I assure you, it happens that way in the US too even though we're paying 10x as much.
I know private in the UK is quite good. What you need to understand is that the only reason it's any good at all is because of the NHS. It has to remain competitive. If you go full private, then it very quickly decays.
That's why in practice we have all these (private) services to get easy GP appointments via phone, video or even online forms. While everyone knows those appointments can't realistically do any real medical work, they serve to give you prescriptions and referrals.
It's just a gatekeeping mechanism, that you can more easily bypass if you have money. The more you pay, the more they care about your user experience and how streamlined it is.
I pay $500 per month for the privilege (and a $50 copay)
So I’m paying $1000 in the time period where I’m getting no service.
I also had cancer in the past and you might think that that would mean I get faster appointments. I do not.
And I have a very, very, very good PPO plan.
Sadly you do not may be because lower life expectancy -> lower return on treatment "investment".
Appropriate attire... when you're in a trench :)
My SO is on state Medicaid (cancer) and does experience the kinds of waits mentioned above... so I guess it does follow similarly for government/state backed healthcare, where I'm mostly out of pocket.
But even when I had relatively typical coverage, I didn't have issues getting into a doctor more often than not. I think getting my sleep study was the longest wait I had for anything, they were months backed up with appointments... but my kidney and retina specialists were somewhat easy to get started with.
Pharmacy was useless, no medical skills or knowledge of their own products. Asked me to figure out myself what I needed and put it on my son myself.
Local GP surgery sent us away: no registration, no visit. Me saying this was an emergency just made them suggest A&E.
A&E is where we ended up, and while that definitely works, going to the emergency services of a large hospital for every little thing is not only a waste of my time but also of resources. It seems however to be the NHS way: whenever the littlest of troubles arise, just go to the hospital, or even call an ambulance.
We have insurance, it’s amazing! But it’s fake. If you want to know how a whole system of this would work, look at the US