Pre visit. Blood test; Phlebotomist's charge €9
At Doctor's. Wait over an hour, then 10 minute consultation; €23
Pharmacy; A few pills, €113.62
Blood test bill; €50.22
Total; €195.84
Repeat every 3 months, if not insolvent.
If I had followed the exact same procedure in England (and this applies to any visiting Frenchmen/woman) it would all have been FREE. That's equality Europe for you.
It's a good thing my paintings sell for thousands!
Here we have to pay medical insurance. And the pills we have to pay anyway so I think it is not so cheap here too.
ReplyDeleteStay healthy.
I'm not 'unhealthy', just type 2 diabetic. Not much I can do about it.
DeleteGood heavens.
ReplyDeleteAlso being type 2 diabetic I have sympathy with the on-going expanse, all my various pills, and injections come free, as well as blood pressure and colestoral pills.
ReplyDeleteEquality always seems to make some people more equal than others.
Hurrah for the NHS Cro ….. it annoys me when people moan about it but, we are so lucky having it. Living where you do must be { and sounds } idyllic but, I guess there will be a few things that you have missed.
ReplyDeleteGet those brushes and paint out …. those meds are really expensive !! XXXX
You're not kidding!
DeleteI wish that folk who constantly moan about the NHS knew this Cro - it is appalling.
ReplyDeleteAnd they wonder why they're queueing up at Calais!
DeleteWe, South Africans, were visiting on Isle of Man in 2012. My husband, Grant caught a cold which developed into bronchial asthma. We went to the A&E : waited 45mins. Had a 45 min consultation with an old-fashioned doctor who put my husband onto a nebulizer, injected him with something to help him breathe (or calm down, not sure!) and wrote out a prescription. We had this filled at the Tesco pharmacy for about 10 pound. We were impressed. In SA you wait at the outpatients ; sometimes for a day or more. Then when you see a sister or technician, they don't the meds. All this non-service is free. LOL! Take care. Greetings Jo
ReplyDeleteWe have Medicare in Oz which we all contribute to via a levy in our taxes. I go to a bulk bill clinic and pay nothing. Meds are subsidised on the PBS so quite reasonable. Eg. I pay $13 for a months supply of "dont kill my family" pills. We do have issues with waiting lists for surgery but in general i think we really are THE LUCKY COUNTRY!
ReplyDeleteHope your results were better this time after all your dieting.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear your paintings are selling for thousands - by the time I get the one you gave me as a wedding present I expect they will be selling for millions!!!!!!!!
Hmmmmm.
DeleteYou didn't mention how the tests went. Hopefully the meds were reduced this time.
DeleteTests OK, but I'd put on a bit of weight. Naughty.
DeleteSounds expensive.....I think I'll stay in Ontario,.
ReplyDeleteMedical bills are one of the main reasons for bankruptcy in the US - even if you have expensive insurance.
ReplyDeleteA bout 15 years back I stubbed a toe on the corner of the bed. In the morning it was swollen to twice its normal size and hurt badly. I put my sandals on and hobble across the street in to the emergency room. I ask if they can X-ray it to make sure its not broken. I told them to give me on the economy plan as I had no insurance. After a two hour wait with no one else in the cue, I see the nice young X-ray tech student who notes they have not even written the right toe on the order papers. She takes a picture of the correct toe, and after another half hour wait and two separate room shuffles, a "physician's assistant" walks in, looks at the x-ray and declares no break and prescribes two aspirin. He never gets any closer to me than 6 feet, and spends no more than a minute and a half in the room with me. A week later I get a bill for 30$ from the imaging department and think wow that's great. That is a good deal. I send of a check for the bill. A week after that I get a second bill from the hospital for 380 $ for "medical examination". And you think its expensive? wait til its free!!!. I am told Barry and his Obamacare made it free now ..LOL
ReplyDeleteMaybe I got off lightly!
DeleteAn American friend once calculated the cost of the cancer treatments I had received, those my husband had received, and the cost of having the children we had between us.......as well as how much of each of these expenses her medical insurance would not have covered.......so, so important, that the NHS survives !!!
ReplyDeleteEssential.
DeleteEven with excellent health insurance (which costs us about $300 a month) our co-pays and deductibles are crazy. Without insurance, not sure what would have happened when my husband had cancer treatment. All in all the treatments that went on for most of a year (surgery, chemo, etc) have left us owing about $10,000. That's AFTER our insurance paid most of the charges. And the copays for medication, checkups, blood work, etc etc have probably already cost us between $5000 and $8,000 during the past three years. All the bills are slowly bleeding us DRY.
DeleteTo top it all off, my husband's credit score is in the toilet because dozens of charges have gone to collections. Trying to sort the stacks of bills out would be a full time job. Plus, we can only pay so much each month towards his bills.
I won't complain, though. I'm so very, very grateful that my husband survived stage 3b lung cancer. And he not only survived, he's healthy 3 years later. But it's difficult to manage all this debt that we surely didn't ask for.
All that to say: health care in the USA, while top-notch in terms of quality, is a nightmare for people of ordinary means to try to pay for. :(
DeleteEvery time I take the kids to the doctor, and this is years now not just under the new healthcare, I get billed even after paying the upfront copay. It's really annoying. I hope you're okay--stay healthy!
ReplyDeleteThat's the answer; don't get ill.
DeleteI thought France had socialized medicine too. They keep telling us we're the only backwards country when it comes to healthcare.
ReplyDeleteIt all runs on private insurance. The paperwork involved is fantastic.
DeleteIn the U.S., I pay $700.USD per month for insurance and another 600 USD per month for insulin and pills. The poor don't pay anything - they go to the emergency rooms at hospitals for their care. We insured are essentially paying for everyone's healthcare. Everytime politicians try and change the status quo, the conservatives scream socialism as if the states will become communists or something. Very bad medicine in the USA. When my husband got cancer, a stage 4 that had spread, we went to MD Anderson, but our insurance said it wouldn't pay because MD Anderson was out of network so we had to pay $50,000 out of our own pocket. It's been 13 years and he's still kicking.
ReplyDeleteI really haven't been following all this Obamacare business, but it doesn't seem to be popular.
DeleteI didn't even bring up Obamacare. It's for the poor who don't have insurance and I don't know what it covers, but I can guarantee since the government is running it, it is going to be a mess. Health care costs is one of the top reasons for bankruptcy in the U.S. It is that or lose everything you've worked your whole life for.
DeleteI thought there was a longwinded claim back system .
ReplyDeleteThere is for some; unfortunately that doesn't include me!
DeleteIn the US we've had something called Medicaid/Medicare for years. Those who earn a pay check are supposed to pay in to it via withholding that the employer takes along with a mandatory contribution he makes on behalf of each employe. Those that work under the table don't. And the program is in the red due to abuse and mismanagement. You only qualify to use it if you are retired, bellow a certain income level or indigent. Hospitals must serve all that present themselves. Helps if you don't speak English. Hospitals bill the GVT for the costs. The cost of those who do not contribute are born by those that pay in the form of inflated prices. GVT don't always pay in time or in full. Costs went out of control. Private employers were given tax break if they offered private insurance to employees. Typically employes pay 1/3 the employer pays 2/3 of a group policy cost. We pay 320$/ month my wife's employer pays another 1200$ for a good plan including dental and eye care. We still have a 25 to 50$ co-pay every time we seek service. Private insurance also rose due to inflation of hospital services. A while back Slick Willienand his clowns came up with the notion of "preventive medicine" and his wife pushed something called Hilary care. Individual States were given control of the purse to be paid by Washington. All aliments were classified in to a code in order to control expenses. Yea right!. Insurance markets were regulated so you can only buy health insurance within your state and most states imposed rules outlawing everything but Cadillac insurance with full coverage from hair to toenail, thus limiting free market competition. No more low cost, high deductible catastrophic only plans. In other words, not insurance but health maintenance programs. Costs still out of control many southern hospitals saw the need to shut doors due to insolvency because procedure costs exceeded those specified by the GVT coding and way to many indigent patients. Along comes Barry and his cadre of Chicago shysters, with their plan. Pelosy told us "You got to vote for it to find out whats in it". Through some political shenanigans, and without a single vote from the Reps the left side of the senate managed to foist on us this Obamacare that makes everyone buy insurance under punity of law. Not one single new doctor added for all the newly covered, but 15 thousand new IRS agents added to enforce it. Employers with more than 50 employes must provide health insurance to employes or face fines, that are less than the cost of buying said insurance. So you can see where that one goes. Except those fat cats that made big Democrat party contributions got special papal dispensations and are exempt. Bottom line is private insurance cost have gone up because it must cover GVT mandated things like birth control pills and abortions for all regardless if you are beyond reproductive age. As is to be expected regulation and red tape has increased, and choices have been diminished. All to cover, in real numbers less than 2% of uncovered. The GVT insurance exchanges have been a total CF and no one can figure them out, and when they do they learn that they have to pay big bucks and get less than they had before. Less than 6 million signed on, and less than half a million have actually paid for insurance through the GVT exchanges. Ahh but its free.. ebritin free in amerika
ReplyDeleteSounds like a mess.
DeleteThere are so many, many things I'd like to address here, but it's late and I'm dog tired.
DeleteThe slight misogynistic and racist tone of this rant is offensive and I want to say that not all Americans think this way.
I believe that health care should be a basic human right for EVERYONE and I, personally, would gladly pay more taxes if it meant that we could cover everyone. I'm already paying an arm and a leg (ha!) for insurance coverage, I'd just as soon pay the same amount of money in taxes so that everyone could get their health needs met. Even (gasp!) people who don't speak English, or women who want birth control or abortions.
Jennifer:
DeleteMisogynistic because I think its absurd to mandate free birth control pills and fee on demand abortions for women beyond reproductive age? Racist because I said it helps if you don't speak English when you go to the emergency room. Sorry my brand of compassion is not a s noble as yours. As a native Spanish speaker and a fully assimilated legal immigrant to the US of A, and a citizen by choice, I believe in personal responsibility. As in, it is everyone's obligation to put away a nest egg for the rainy day. And if someone can't afford 12$ a month birth control pills they best lay off the 5$/cup Starbucks for a spell. 10K $ out of pocket expenses for cancer treatment to save a life is cheap. Most folks don't think twice on spending three times that sort of money on a car that will be junk before you pay it off. Before Obamacare and before Hillarycare one could buy 1.5 million $ worth of Catastrophic health insurance for the tune of 35 $ a month with a 10K$ deductible. For another 12 $ a month you could buy a rider policy that covered the gap between 10K$ and 1200$. So you biggest expense in the worst case scenario ever was 1200$. I had just such a policy til it was outlawed by well intentioned politicians trying to protect me from myself. 47$/month is far less than some spend on I-Phone contracts today, even factoring in inflation. But You see Government got involved, to protect you from your self in an effort to bail out Medicaid and Medicare that they drove in to the ground, and force people on to private insurance. Government outlawed such catastrophic coverage demanding ALL insurance polices be health maintenance programs with 100% coverage for any and all expenses. Such plans are very expensive and drove 75% of providers out of the market thus limiting your choices. Now I am fortunate that we have an excellent plan through my wife's employer. I still have a 35$ copay every year when I go for a simple checkup. The doctor bills the insurance company another 175$ for the visit. In contrast I can go to the walk in clinic down the street. No appointments, they do not accept insurance, medicaid medicare, but do accept CC, checks or cash. They charge 50U$ per visit. Whats the difference? No government. Oh I fully believe you have a right to your birth control pills and abortions, just don't ask me to pay for them. But if it makes you feel good to think I am racist and misogynist because I advocate personal responsibility you go right ahead.
I live across the Pond and see one or two others that have shared their experiences. Mine is similar, although thankfully, for the moment (touching wood) i'm medically boring.
ReplyDeleteHealth care in the US is a nightmare. Count your blessings, Cro.
ReplyDeleteAmen.
DeleteWhatever anybody says about our NHS - I think they're fantastic.
ReplyDeleteSo right!
DeleteOnly a 45 minute wait in the nhs
ReplyDelete