National Health Care for the Win x 2

Sage & I have been coughing for almost two weeks now. I decided to take her to the neighborhood drop-in clinic first thing Friday morning just to make sure she wasn't on the verge of an ear infection. Neither of us have National Health Insurance yet. It will kick in four months after we received our Alien Resident Cards, which will be sometime in November. Jude, because he is employed in Taiwan, received his NHI card within a month of our arrival. (We do, however, have private insurance that we can utilize.)

Dr. Bear is about a 15 minute walk (downhill, yay!) from our apartment. Sage was pretty excited when we walked in and found a giant climbing contraption/slide in the waiting room. While she had a good time in primary color land, I took care of the paperwork. Before I sat down they called us back to see the doctor.

Instead of your typical exam room in Taiwan the doctor sits at a desk and the patient sits in a chair right next to the doctor. Our chair even had a little lace doily across the back. :) A nurse is always present, too. It was by far the easiest doctor's visit I've had with Sage in the past year. She sat on my lap and let them listen to her lungs, look in her ears, up her nose and willingly opened her mouth so they could stick a tongue depressor and light down her throat. Considering the monumental challenge brushing her teeth can be, I was very happy with both Sage and the Dr. Bear staff.

We chatted with the lovely female doctor for a few minutes, she then pronounced that Sage had "the common cold" and she described the prescriptions she would be writing for Sage. We were ushered back out the door and by the time we made it back to the lobby they handed the script to us and told us we could go to the pharmacy four doors down to pick up the meds.

All total (with absolutely no insurance) for the appointment and the drugs, we paid the equivalent of $24 USD. That is less than what we paid in the US for just an appointment, with health insurance!!!!! Crazy, crazy, crazy. 

A similar scene played out this morning when, after a marathon hacking session last night, I decided my voice needed a little TLC. I dropped by the clinic with no appointment twenty minutes before they closed for lunch. I was diagnosed with acute bronchitis and had my medication in hand in thirteen minutes! 

Thirteen minutes and $27 USD later I am even more keenly aware that the US's medical system is deeply, deeply flawed. I'm no expert and fixing the problem is monumentally challenging, but change has to happen.