After suffering with an horrendous cough for over a week Gerry finally went to a walk-in clinic. One visit - $95. The doctor (in training) decided he needed a shot of antibiotics ($75), a lung treatment to ease his breathing (which made very little difference and was probably just a cash grab) $85 and a chest x-ray (she thought he had pneumonia). She prescribed antibiotics and an inhaler and trotted us off to a diagnostic clinic. Fortunately nothing showed on the x-ray so he probably has bronchitis. Off we go to the pharmacy and have first hand experience of why Americans complain about their medication costs. Ten, yes only 10 antibiotic pills - if you got the name brand - were over $500. We insisted on generic which were $168, and inhaler $45! We have insurance so will be reimbursed for all of this. The diagnostic centre accepted our insurance as payment so we don't know how much that cost but hope some day to find out. Searching on line revealed maybe $250.
Over $700 for just bronchitis - can you imagine how much it would have been for something more serious? Do not - I repeat, do not ever travel without medical insurance and if you're Canadian think twice (at least) before you complain about our health care.
1 comment:
Why didnt you just send ME all that money? I took one listen to that cough and diagnosed it as bronchitis over skype for goodness sakes :P
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