Reply #96: Similar things happened when my family went to Europe [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

back in the 1960s. We had a couple of encounters with the medical system during our five-week stay.

We were staying with relatives on an island in Norway when my brother cut his head open running through a low doorway. Our relatives sent for the island's nurse-midwife, who came and patched him up. When by dad asked her how much he owed her, she looked surprised.

Later in that same trip, in Wiesbaden, Germany, my mother came down with a bad throat infection, and the hotel directed us to what seemed to be a kind of urgent care clinic. Again, there was no charge to be seen.

While we were staying in Amsterdam, I fell down the stairs, which were extremely steep with narrow treads. The hotel insisted that I go to the emergency room to be checked out. I came out of the experience with a lump on my head (no concussion) and lots of bruises, but nothing broken. There was no charge, and we got to see a bit of "theatre" as a sailor was brought in with stab wounds.

I've been fortunate enough to need a doctor only once in Japan, when a cut became infected. Unlike many other countries, Japan does not treat visitors for free, and I think I paid the equivalent of about $100 for being seen three times. However, if I had been a legal resident, I could have enrolled in the government's insurance program, which pays 70% of normal medical procedures and 100% of treatment for a list of catastrophic and chronic conditions. It's not as good a deal as Canada or the European countries have, but there's no deductible, so it's a much better deal than I have currently.