I have worked in the health care field, and my mom has worked for a public hospital for years and years. The hospital is NOT SUPPOSED to ask if someone has health insurance before providing your care. It is illegal for them to discriminate based on insurance coverage. The fact is that the hospital where my mom works loses thousands of dollars every year on patients who they treat who have no health insurance and never pay their bills. (Granted, the bills are really expensive, but it does cost a lot of money to keep things running the way people have come to expect them to be run.)
Anyway, I'm not really worried about the level of treatment I'll get there. I wonder if it will be as high quality as what I'm used to, but I don't think it will be bad (and certainly not bad enough to make me worry about my health, heh :). I'm actually looking forward to affordable health care and not having to worry constantly if I'm getting sick and if I will be able to afford the doctor's visit and meds. :P
/tome *is slightly embarassed that it took two posts*
I've asked other people this too. What does 'high quality' mean to you? Feel free to reply to other people's comments, maybe some of it will reassure you!
I'm not entirely sure what "high quality" means to me, to be perfectly honest. Sometimes it's hard to step back when you're in a country that's not your home country and realize that some of the differences aren't necessarily not as good but just different. For instance, I found it extremely frustrating not to have access to the over-the-counter meds I was used to getting here when I was over in Australia. It's hard to remember that that doesn't make your meds not as good, just different, especially when you're sick and all you want is the meds that you know are tried and true and work. :/ I did find it frustrating that the grocery stores didn't have near the selection of OTC meds to which I am accustomed. My theory is that's a difference in culture due to the socialized versus private health care. I reckon Americans are more prone to self-medicate to avoid the cost, and I'm used to that and prefer it to visiting the doctor for every little thing.
Anyway, I guess high quality for me is going to mean good doctor/patient relationship, clean facilities, reasonable wait times, reasonably advanced technology, plenty of access to pain-alleviation, and I guess the thing I'm unsure about finding in Australia is multitudes of choices (whether it be in drugs or technologies or doctors, etc.). I'm sure that's probably an entirely unfounded concern, but so far my only experience has been frustration in trying to find OTC meds to treat every day problems. And again, although I'm definitely not against socialized health care, the slight apprehension is probably due to the inbred American fear of socialism making things be not as good. :)
lol it's not 'socialism' as in 'Communist Russia' socialism. :P
I'm not sure what OTC medications you're talking about... what, like... medication with codeine in it for coughs? We're not allowed that OTC. But the amount of time that you take to go to the doctor to get the prescription is about what, 30 minutes ish? And then the wait at the pharmacy isn't long.
I can't vouch for how many choices there are for medications or technologies or doctors, because I can't compare with how many choices you have. However its seriously not like we're... Poland. Where there's one choice and you'll like it dammit! Training for medications and new technologies is a little slower, but that's because so much of it is tried out overseas first, then we get it a bit later once we check to see how your patients went with it. :P
Doctors... I have two local doctor's surgeries, and if I'm just going in for a cold I get whatever doctor is there, and they're all good, in different ways. I've never had a problem with doctor/patient relationships, and I hope you don't either once you're here! If I'm making an appointment for something that's not 'right now' I have choices of doctors. We've always had choices of doctors- between about 10 of them between the two local surgeries. And I'm pretty sure you're allowed to go somewhere outside of your local area. I think.
I have worked in the health care field, and my mom has worked for a public hospital for years and years. The hospital is NOT SUPPOSED to ask if someone has health insurance before providing your care. It is illegal for them to discriminate based on insurance coverage. The fact is that the hospital where my mom works loses thousands of dollars every year on patients who they treat who have no health insurance and never pay their bills. (Granted, the bills are really expensive, but it does cost a lot of money to keep things running the way people have come to expect them to be run.)
Anyway, I'm not really worried about the level of treatment I'll get there. I wonder if it will be as high quality as what I'm used to, but I don't think it will be bad (and certainly not bad enough to make me worry about my health, heh :). I'm actually looking forward to affordable health care and not having to worry constantly if I'm getting sick and if I will be able to afford the doctor's visit and meds. :P
/tome *is slightly embarassed that it took two posts*
Reply
Feel free to reply to other people's comments, maybe some of it will reassure you!
Reply
Anyway, I guess high quality for me is going to mean good doctor/patient relationship, clean facilities, reasonable wait times, reasonably advanced technology, plenty of access to pain-alleviation, and I guess the thing I'm unsure about finding in Australia is multitudes of choices (whether it be in drugs or technologies or doctors, etc.). I'm sure that's probably an entirely unfounded concern, but so far my only experience has been frustration in trying to find OTC meds to treat every day problems. And again, although I'm definitely not against socialized health care, the slight apprehension is probably due to the inbred American fear of socialism making things be not as good. :)
Reply
I'm not sure what OTC medications you're talking about... what, like... medication with codeine in it for coughs? We're not allowed that OTC. But the amount of time that you take to go to the doctor to get the prescription is about what, 30 minutes ish? And then the wait at the pharmacy isn't long.
I can't vouch for how many choices there are for medications or technologies or doctors, because I can't compare with how many choices you have. However its seriously not like we're... Poland. Where there's one choice and you'll like it dammit! Training for medications and new technologies is a little slower, but that's because so much of it is tried out overseas first, then we get it a bit later once we check to see how your patients went with it. :P
Doctors... I have two local doctor's surgeries, and if I'm just going in for a cold I get whatever doctor is there, and they're all good, in different ways. I've never had a problem with doctor/patient relationships, and I hope you don't either once you're here! If I'm making an appointment for something that's not 'right now' I have choices of doctors. We've always had choices of doctors- between about 10 of them between the two local surgeries. And I'm pretty sure you're allowed to go somewhere outside of your local area. I think.
Reply
Leave a comment