Perscription: 9 dollars,
Escaping the fiasco known as the American healthcare system: Priceless...
(I LOVE KOREA)
So apparently we have discovered I am allergic to the yellow dust in Korea. Yellow dust is a phenomenon related to the yellow dust that travels from the deserts of China across the sea and straight to my lungs. It happens in the Spring time in Korea. On some days the sky almost looks red from it. It really isn't all that bad, but with the added air pollution from our big city plus my super sensitivity to allergens in general it wasn't long before I had a sinus infection from it all. I finally gave in today after a long night marked by coughing and not being able to breathe. I hate the doctor. Maybe it is because of the stigma attached to going (Losing money and not really feeling like they are paying attention to you to begin with)
Today I broke though that mindset when I went to the doc down the hall from our campus. I got one of our bosses Sean to go with me for translating purposes. I went in and waited about ten minutes. The nurse out front took my temp and blood pressure. Five minutes later I was in with the doctor. He scoped my throat and nose and even let me see a picture of my inner ear. It was awesome. He actually listened to me when I told him how I felt (or rather listened to Sean as he said it in Korean) After our brief but in depth visit, I was sent out front to pay. I almost had a heart attack as they said 13,000 won (That roughly is estimated to be about ten bucks) In shock I walked down the hall the other direction to the pharmacy in our building to put in my prescription. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to wait or not so we waited. Within two minutes I was paying and fully finished with my visit. The grand total of all three prescriptions for a week I was given: 10,000 won ($8.50).
All I can say is SCREW AMERICAN HEALTH CARE. I am loving Korea. WIthin thirty minutes I was seen by a doctor got my prescription and was only out around 20 bucks.
In order to be fully Korean I have included a picture of my final addition to my treatment plan...
Allergies suck (as Nicole and I are becoming slightly aware of, here in South Carolina). But, that sounds like an awesome deal. I love it when unexpected things like that happen. What is their health care like compared to ours? How are they able to give health care for so cheap?
ReplyDeletecompared to our: better, much better... hahaha
ReplyDeleteThey subsidized doctors visits and prescriptions. When everyone in the country has health care, there aren't as many unexpected expenses. Each national must pay half the premium and the gov't or employer pays the other half which isn't much (~180-200 each a year) With that they have more preventative medicine and can cut down on a lot of the bigger price tags. It still has it's problems and the Asian economic crisis in the nineties put it into jeopardy for a bit, but overall it is pretty amazing.
those masks are supposed to really help people with lots of airborne allergy problems! we learned all about them in class the other night! it made me think of you!
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