I want to talk about the benefits of socialized medicine from someone who has just gone through it.
Since last night I have had this feeling creeping up my throat. You know the feeling well. It's the feeling of soreness and is usually accompanied by a feeling of someone putting weights on your upper chest. Today at school it only got worse. I vowed to make a trip to the hospital for the first time in a country where English is not the primary language and medicine is practically free (or so i've heard.)
In South Korea about 3% or so is taken out of my paycheck each month. This month it was 53,00Won out of 2,100,000Won (in dollars that $43 out of $1736.70 as of the exchange rate right this second.)
With that said I was lucky enough to ask one of my teacher students (I teach a group of them Monday and Friday) if she knew where the hospital was in our town. She tried to draw me a map but said she would take me so I could make it in time. On the way back to my town from my school I asked her what she meant by "make it on time". She said all doctors close their offices around 6:30PM but there are special building that have walk-in emergency rooms that are open 24 hours a day.
The rest if boring so I will shorten the time inside of the office. With no appointment I got to see the doctor within 5 minutes. He spoke English. I told him what was wrong (sore throat, earache, sick) and he checked it out. Very clean office but it was small. For the checkup I paid 4,500WON!!!!!!!!!!!! ($3.72 for the exchange rate right now) and was prescribed a three day medication. I went to the Pharmacy which was the next building over, less than 10 yards, and gave them the script. Within 2 minutes she gave me two sets of packages. One set was every day and contained multiple pills. The other was twice a day and contained multiple pills (around 5 or 6.) The total cost for that was $4.14!!!!!! for the current exchange rate.
The only question I have is if this program can work so efficiently with such little tax money how can we, in America, not come up with anything at all?
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5 comments:
I dont see any difference between what you paid with "socialized" medicine, and what I pay here in America with private medicine. I pay $52.98 a month (out of pocket) for Blue Cross Blue Shield, I choose my own doctor... or I can walk in to any walk in clinic with a copay of $5 and get a $4 generic of antibiotics.
The only difference is, at the end of the day.. I dont have the red tape of government to cut through should anything serious happen to me. I dont get wait listed for surgery (Canada,) I dont get told that I'm not "worthy" of being treated based on age or any other disqualifying reason (Italy,) and I dont have to constantly worry about the possibility of one day having a crazy elected administration that all the sudden wants to implement any of the aforementioned issues.
I'm wondering if the person commenting above me has ever had a major medical problem in America, especially without having incredibly expensive and expansive health insurance. Considering my experience with my father, I'm left in serious doubt. The NHS in the UK is the pride of the world. America could easily have a system that is just as good. If only special interests didn't win every other time.
I'm going to take a little bit of what Max said. When it comes to major medical you have a deductible in America. You go over that deductible and you pay out of pocket. With Socialized medicine there is no such thing. Wait lines for major procedures? They don't exist here. And who is this "crazy elected administration" you mention? Things work drastically different in the rest of the world than in America.
And I have had BlueCross Blueshild. I had it through my mother when she was a teacher. If you know anything about teachers then you know they get some of the best medical insurance that exists. My co-pays were $20 and medicine usually cost $30. So you say you have this low, low insurance costs but frankly I think your a lier. I have NEVER heard (and I've asked around) of antibiotics for that low nor co-pays that low with bluecross. (And the fact you remained Anonymous helps to prove my point.)
And you say you don't trust socialized medicine but the real problem is you don't trust the government. Just come out and say why you don't trust the government instead of wasting our time beating around the bush.
Hey Jay,
Just have to comment that I went to the hospital yesterday and it cost me about $160 for my checkup, $20 for my prescription and they couldn't give me an actual answer as to what's wrong. If I want to get a more conclusive answer our GEPIK insurance covers none of it. It's $600 out of pocket that I'd have to pay myself to get a better diagnosis. In the States, I was covered by my dad's insurance (engineer at a university, not even a teacher) and my copays were $10, prescriptions $10 (even for accutane), and I paid $50 when I had surgery with overnight stay.
I realize that not all visits are that expensive, but just keep in mind that not all visits are as cheap as the one you had either.
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