I'm curious about the American medical system. (And other countries)

[Random_Australian]

So, the other day I was ill, went to the doctor, and had to buy a course of rather strong antibiotics.

The venture cost me, in total, $16.30 (For comparison, milk is about $3.00 for a two-litre bottle)

So, Loungers, how much would this have cost you? (I have left in in my dollars, just work it out in terms of amount of milk bought per medicine)

P.S. and it took me about four hours total too. :)

Or in other words, it about as much as a ticket to the cinema and a 'small' drink.

[Kutjara]

1. Are you talking Aussie dollars or Yankee dollars? n/t

[Random_Australian]

3. I'm asking about how much other things

you would be able to buy with it, so I guess it is written in Aussie dollars. I'll go edit for clarity.

[Kutjara]

2. In the UK, the doctor visit would have cost nothing...

...but you'd probably still have a long wait. The antibiotics would have run GBP 10, or USD 18.

[Random_Australian]

4. Doctor visit cost me nothing too. :)

[Deja Q]

5. Ribbing dongs, are we?

:rofl:

About the same.

Though you'd be waiting a helluva long time in the States.

[MissHoneychurch]

6. I say about the same here in Germany

We have to pay €10/quarter when we go to the doc (if you need to go to another one in that 3 months you can get a referral) and you have to pay some of the medicine as well. Not the whole price but a percentage.

[YankeyMCC]

7. About twice that in real value

About the same for the doctor visit and then that again for the drugs.

[Random_Australian]

8. Interesting.

[Mutley]

9. Probably about $30-$40 for the doctor visit

and medication could cost anywhere from what you paid to $100+ depending on what it is. I think I paid about $40 for antibiotics the last time I needed them. My dog's antibiotics were $20 the other day.

[zanne]

10. How long to get an appointment?

I'm talking outside the U.S. If you had a terrible cough and called your doctor, how long would you have to wait to get an appointment to see him/her?

[Random_Australian]

24. I walked into the doctors office at about 9:30 am, and was home at

about 11:00 am, I think. So it must have taken me a lot less than four hours! Whoops!

(But that's only the same-day service. Appointments were booked for over a week)

[Lydia Leftcoast]

11. I have "insurance" with a high deductible

so I'd pay full fare for an office visit ($100 or more) and, I'd have to hope that the antibiotic was not exclusive to one company, in which case the price would be perhaps $40. If it was exclusive to one company, then the sky would be the limit.

I simply don't go to the doctor if I have something that is likely to heal itself.

When I had good insurance with an employer between 1986 and 1993, I paid 10% of charges plus $4 for presciptions.

[NewWaveChick1981]

12. My insurance copay is $20 for a primary care physician visit

, $30 for a specialist visit, $10 for a generic prescription, $20 for a brand-name prescription, and $30 for a nonpreferred brand-name prescription. A doctor's visit and antibiotics would probably have cost me $30-40 out of pocket. (I'm in the US.) However, health insurance for my husband and me (which we get through my employer) is close to $300 a month. :yoiks: So, the insurance costs me right at $3600 a year. In reality, that $30-40 office visit and prescription cost a lot more than that. :(

[Nikia]

13. With my old insurance, maybe about the same

$25 for an office visit. $10 copay for the prescription. Milk is cheaper in Wisconsin. You definietely can buy a gallon, which is roughly twice as much milk(I think anyway), for under $3.00.
My new insurance has worse drug coverage. For example, I am paying $4 and $28 for my monthly medicines which is less than the copays for them. A coworker said that $40 is the typical copay for "expensive" prescriptions. Depending on what it is, my local pharmacy may or may not have it cheaper than that.

[TheBaldyMan]

14. If you are using the milk standard - I'd pay a lot more

because milk is really cheap here in comparison.

The absolute cost in UK for a standard prescription is £6.50 approx US$12.50 but two litres of milk is £0.75 approx US$1.35

If you are low-paid or unwaged you have nothing to pay for medical treatment and higher paid have a nominal charge for drugs and teatment.

You can still have private medical insurance that allows you to get treatment for elective surgery faster than the NHS allows (there is a waiting list for non-emergency NHS cases).

[Lars39]

15. I took my son to the doctor a couple of summers ago.

We had no insurance on him at the time because we were having to buy health insurance for me.
It cost $175, cash up front, for the doctor to see him, and $85 for anti-biotic and other meds.
So this one doctor's visit cost us $260.

Even if we had insurance on him, we would have had to pay a deductible, so we still would have been out the $175.

The health insurance(COBRA) that we were buying at the time for just me cost $414/month, and that didn't include deductibles and didn't cover 100% of the cost of my medical care.
My total medical bills were well over $250,000.
We already had some debt from previous medical bills.We went into bankruptcy, surrendering the house that we had built ourselves.

The insurance we have right now has a $1000 deductible per person.

I have pre-existing conditions, so I am extremely fortunate to even have insurance on myself.

[querelle]

16. I Pay Nothing

Doctor visits are free and my meds are covered by my health plan from work. But then again.........I'm just a commie pinko Canadian and a threat to global commerce. I'm also French so that makes me a double threat dontcha know. Go figure.........

Q

On Edit: I see my doctor immediately. I call her in the morning and she can see me in the afternoon on the same day. Sweet.

Q (again)

[China_cat]

17. Tote it up

$125 for the office visit (no insurance) IF I could get in at all...anywhere between $80 and $250 for the antibiotics depending on what they are and how many. (I had to give up my headache meds because I couldn't afford $45 per dose)

By comparison, milk is $2.69 per gallon.

[achtung_circus]

18. Less than that.

The Doctor's visit costs nothing out of immediate pocket. What people don't always remember is that ids one of the things our taxes pay for. But..

I can get into see my family doctor in a matter of hours. If I can't or if he's away, etc. a walk-in clinic for minor stuff takes about 1-2 hours waiting, depending on a bunch of factors.

Antibiotics? For Amoxil, probably $20.. For something with oomph, say Cipro, about $35.

My drug plan from work pays 80% of drugs, so for Amoxil I'd pay $4, for Cipro about $7, after I'd claimed the receipts.

[Omphaloskepsis]

19. If I went to the ER $400 + plus $30 for Cipro®

My Doctor would be about $150. I don't have insurance. What a fanfuckingtasic country.

[Arger68]

22. Mine would be a similar amount.

I have insurance but it's $10,000 (yes, $10,000) deductible. :eyes:

[u4ic]

20. Nothing

Fully covered.

My doctor is also a Prof at the University, and only works half time. If I can't get to see her right away, I'd just go to a walk in clinic. Depending on how busy it is, I can get in anywhere from 30 min - 1.5 hrs. (average wait time about 3/4 - 1 hr; I just bring a book)

Many family doctors will give patients samples if they can't afford meds.

[TommyO]

21. Right now, about $20 US

however come January 1st, it will probably cost me a lot more. I'll have a high minimum out-of-pocket minimum that I have to pay before any of my benefits kick in, thanks to the new benefits program instituted by our new corporate overlords.

[OllieLotte]

23. Was any sort of insurance involved? $16.30 seems low.

That would be $12 U$D.

[Random_Australian]

25. Awww, sort of. It's called 'medicare'. Doesn't cost at all much to have,

as it is the public thingummy, but it does count as insurance, I think.

I can't remember all the details as my parents pay for the damn thing (if it needs money, it might not), but I do remember it means the government paid for my doctors appointment.

The other reason it is cheap is because of the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme - laws that ban big pharma from charging the prices they want to. :)

[OllieLotte]

28. Alright Mate, I'm glad you started this thread.

You really hit on something that I don't think most of us have a very good handle on. Some people answered your question by saying that the doctor and medication were free. We know that isn't really the case. It was maybe free for them. I got into some poison ivy roots (much worse than the leaves) and it cost me $500 for a doctor visit, shots and steroids. I have insurance, but that total went to my deductible, so that was out of my pocket. Insurance is really a complicated expensive mess in the US and government involvement would only make things worse.

[Random_Australian]

29. Current government involvement, yes.

I wouldn't rule out the ability of a competent government to declare an overhaul, do it, and then leave it the freak alone.

(As in, create an autonomous public healthcare system)

:)

[uppityperson]

26. I did this a couple wks ago, regular doctor. Billed insurance $200

I paid $25. It took me about an hour. I really hate how they do this, bill insurance outrageous amount ($200), get $55 back from insurance and write off the rest (they made $25+55=$80). If I didn't have insurance, It would've cost me the whole $200, they would've made the whole $200. Now, I do think $200 is a lot to pay for a 15 minute appointment and a bottle of $10 medicine.

[OllieLotte]

30. Insurance upsets the "fair market". $200 is not a fair price.

I don't understand why we can't let the free market work a bit for us in health care. It works well at clothing stores and supermarkets.

[Gormy Cuss]

33. Health care is not discretionary the way clothing purchases are,

and is not controllable in terms of budgeting the way food purchases are. A free market health care system would be just swell for people who can afford catastrophic or long term care, and terrible for those who can't.

The government is actually quite good at providing basic health care at a reasonable cost. The model works well in most countries where it exists now, and in the U.S. the Medicare system works much better and at a more efficient cost than private health insurance.

Much has been written on this topic, if you're interested. Here's a link to one editorial on the notion of free market health care.
http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=17150

You will find that most writers in favor of "free market health care" are libertarians or conservatives --the same people who think everyone has equal ability and opportunity to fund their own health care.

[uppityperson]

34. fair market is $80. So why bill for $200?

$80 seems fair price. Insurance pays this with provider writing off the rest, why then must a non-insured person pay the unreasonable amount of $200?

[CatholicEdHead]

27. Co-Pay is $35/visit off the bat for me before the drugs

It would cost much more when the drugs are included.

[EFerrari]

31. Without insurance, I'd pay $60-75 for the visit, $25-40 for the

anti-biotics and God knows how much if there was testing involved.

I just don't get sick because I can't afford it.

[Kali]

32. Uninsured Rural Western US

Haven't been in a couple years so adjust up a few percentage points. Doc: know him so if I can get past the human moat/barricade of his receptionist he will let me in or even prescribe over the phone, as it were....if it is something acute they will fit me in anyway. For less serious it could be a few days. Normal office visit is $50, $45 if "cash" (no insurance) he is good about giving free samples, prescribing generic, or not the latest pharma scams, so that would depend on what was needed, even plain old penicillin (CHEAP)

A trip to the emergency room is now $600 to "walk" in the door. Helicopter to the nearest trauma/big city hospital (40 miles from the small town hospital) was $1200. ANY kind of surgery, ICU type care is going to be in the tens of thousands. At that point I would (and have) begin the HORRENDOUS process of days of paperwork, humiliating inquiry etc to try to qualify for the state indigent health care services.

There used to be a character around here, a veterinarian who would do x-rays and give antibiotics and such if you were poor and knew him well. He was a damn good vet too, I miss him.

[petronius]

35. I think it would total $30 - which is about 7 gallons of milk

My doctor copay is $20, and the pharmacy copay is $10. The doctor's office would take less than an hour, w/o an appointment. The pharmacy would take longer - I'd have pick up the prescription at least 5 hours after they received it - but that's because the local Rite Aid is basically incompetent...