A Return to Sensibility

After a LONG break I am back. It seems I caught the flu back in very early February. I thought I was over it but it blossomed into a nasty sinus infection. From there it went to bronchitis, and last but not least, pneumonia. It is my own fault. I delayed going to the doctor, not because I didn't have time, but because I didn't have money. I expected the cost to ruin me because after all, I am used to the medical system with all its cost in the United States. I also declined the student insurance that was offered here because I was assured that my insurance at home would cover my medical expenses here.
Yeah, right.
It's no secret that the health care INDUSTRY in the US is a disaster. I'm not saying that the doctors are poor or that the health care actually provided is bad - far from it. It's really quite excellent..... if you can afford it. Therein lies the rub.
Austria has a "single payer" system. Read the link to the Huffington Post article in the previous post to know a bit more. Here's what I can tell you about it first hand.
It is different from the start. At home if I call the doctor when I am sick, I am usually told that the first available appointment is about three months hence. When I say that I am sick TODAY, I am told to go to the ER or the ImmediaCare center. Major dollars already. Or maybe they can work you in two days from now if it's really an emergency and you're not dead by then. In Austria, you just show up during the doctor's office hours. You may recall from an earlier post that the office hours here tend to be erratic. I'm sure that if you miss the hours (and it's a small window) you have to go to the ER here too. But I was lucky. I managed to get to the office with time to spare. I figured that I would need it in order to fill out the inevitable piles of requisite paperwork. In the States you check in with the receptionist who asks all kinds of things about insurance and the like and then you fill out a paper that says nothing has changed and HIPA and whatever all else. Here in Austria you stand in line. Mind you, I'd never been to this place. I finally got to the front of the line, explained my situation (no eCard, private payer, I speak English, particularly when sick, etc..) and waited to be handed the pile of papers. The receptionist told me to have a seat in the waiting area. I looked at her and said "That's it?" I was assured that it was.
So I went and sat. Here's a thing that's very different about the waiting room. It's true of elevators too! When you enter the waiting room (or elevator) it is customary to greet everyone there like it's the deck of a cruise ship or something. It is also customary to bid farewell upon your departure. So here are all these sick people greeting each other. Some things weren't different, like the television and the outdated magazines, but as time went on and people were being called to the examining room, I realized that it was the DOCTOR himself who came out to the waiting room to fetch people! Unheard of!!! Isn't the nurse supposed to come get you while clutching a giant paper stack of medical records, then take you to yet another room and the doctor comes in the back door so he doesn't actually have to associate with the unwashed masses? This was all so new and amazing! Finally a fine young intern called my name and I was whisked off to a lab/examining room. I quickly explained my medical history, he entered the information into a COMPUTER and told me that I would need a CBC (complete blood count). I am VERY familiar with CBCs as I have to have LOTS of them (long story) so I rolled up my right sleeve explaining that this was the better vein. He looked incredulous and said no, they would just take a few drops from my finger and run it through a spectrometer and I would have a reading in 5 minutes. I asked him if he was sure that he didn't need 4 tubes of blood and a half an hour. Nope. Just a few drops. (Sorry to those of you who don't like to think about blood. Blood is my life!!) After quickly coming to the conclusion that I had sinusitis and bronchitis AND a middle ear infection, I was told to go home to bed and was handed a prescription for an antibiotic and two herbal medications. The prescription was a very neat, clean and orderly computer printout, not a slip of paper with barely decipherable chicken scratch. I looked at him in amazement. I said "First of all, I'm American. This is how it works. You are supposed to give me a prescription for the biggest, nastiest, most expensive antibiotic known to man and then I continue about my business. I DON'T do bed rest. And no doctor in the States would EVER give you a prescription for herbs. I don't think the drug companies would stand for it." He laughed and said "Go home and go to bed. Come back Friday."
I went and filled my prescriptions. The nasty antibiotic costs a fortune in the States and so I was cringing in anticipation of the bill. The last time I had it, it cost $85. Imagine my consternation when the pharmacist told me it was 12,70 Euro. I looked at her and said "That can't be right." She assured me that the total was indeed correct. Astounded, I went home with my antibiotic and my two herbal medicines. The one herbal, a cough suppressant, was made of primarily thyme and codeine. It had a rather complex taste, not unlike pond slime combined with liquid pencil shavings and turkey dressing. In spite of its modest herbal origins, it did the trick very nicely. Must have been the codeine!
After another visit to the doctor and a chest x-ray, it was determined that I had walking pneumonia and I was sent home for another week in bed. BORE!!! It was a good call. I am feeling much better and I didn't have to go to the hospital. Yay! And I've lost a lot of weight. Bonus!
Overall, I found the medical system here to be infinitely practical and efficient. The medical establishment is free to go about its mission of health care without the insurance and pharmaceutical industries hanging over them. And everything is computerized. All my medical information is available at the click of a mouse, the prescriptions are clear, the medical personnel are available, it's relatively inexpensive and available to everyone. Why can't we do this in the States????
Some of my Austrian friends complain about the medical system and the cost, but it's SO easy to recount stories of out of control costs in the States that they quickly cease their lamentations.
I have met a new friend here who is currently living with her mother-in-law in England. The extended family lives in the States, but they can't bring the 93 year old mother in law over from England because they can't get health care for her!! Instead they take turns staying with her in England. What's wrong with this picture?? I heard a piece on public radio not too long ago where they were interviewing mixed nationality couples (US and European) who in all cases had decided to reside in Europe because they could not face the hassle of health care in the States.
Fortunately, I have relatively good health care coverage. This is in comparison to self-employed friends of mine who pay $3600 a month for health insurance. I have a daughter who developed some health issues and had to drop out of college to deal with them. She could neither work nor go to school, but the insurance company dropped her because she wasn't in school. To continue her policy was $850 a month. Where, pray tell, was THAT supposed to come from? In Austria, it wouldn't have been a problem.
In spite of the fact that I have reasonably good coverage and in spite of the fact that I am supposedly covered here in Europe, the bottom line is that the doctor here is an "out of network" provider and I have to pay the bill out of my own pocket. The entire cost is less than my "out of network" deductible.
Something has GOT to change with health care in the US. There IS a better way.