No offense - but your health system is *#@&ed

Okay - for those who don't know me, I am an Australian who is living in St Louis for a couple of years. I have spent the past 30-odd years of my life in Australia and have now been in the US since March 07.

I kept hearing all this talk about how the american health system is screwed, but never understood what exactly the problem was until I found out first hand for myself.

First the disclaimer. My employer who sent me over here has provided me with full Health insurance for basically everything (i.e. no Gap) and the cost of all prescription drugs is fully refundable, so I'm not personally going to be out of pocket for any expenses.

My 4yo daughter developed an infection in her finger over the Xmas break. So we needed to take her to the doctor to get some antibiotics prescribed to clear the infection.

My first beef is the overwhelming trend for specialists in the US. In Australia (and I am by no means saying that Australia's health system is perfect - however it is the only system I know by way of comparison), for simple medical issues like this we would see a general practitioner.

The cost of a standard visit to a general practitioner is something like $30, and about $20-$25 of that cost can be re-claimed through "medicare" (national health care fund).

As a result, going to the doctor is really not a big deal for most people. Some clinics will even "bulk-bill" which means the cost of the visit is the same as the medicare refund and there is no out-of-pocket expenses for the patient. Visits to a general practioner do not require ANY private health insurance.

However, my understanding of the american system is that becuase it was my 4yo daughter that was injured, we were "supposed" to take her to a pediatrician. I have no idea what the cost of that visit would have been without private health insurance, but it does strike me as overkill that a generic medical issue like this would require the services of a trained specialist in children's medical issues.

I understand there are "family doctors" in the US, but they appear to be a real minority, and when I tried to get in to a family doctor for a simple blood pressure test, I was told there would be a 3-4 week wait. I ended up visiting an "intern" in "just" a week.

My second, and major, beef is the cost of prescription drugs. The pediatrician prescribed a generic peniccillin to my daughter and my wife went to the nearest Walgreens to fill the prescription. After waiting close to an hour (which again spins me out - I have never waited for mre than 15 minutes for a prescription before), she was handed the medicine and advised that the cost was $87. Bugger Me. $87!!!. That's the equivalent of $100 Australian. The same medicine in Australia would cost $15-20 max.

I have no idea what the difference in cost is attributable to, nor am I complaining from my own perspective, becuase my employer will refund me the entire cost, but how do people on a tight budget survive??

(P.S. This is NOT intended to be a political post, so please don't post political responses!!!)

 

It's healing. Problem is that it is her middle finger and she continually shows it to me. Got to teach her some etiquette.

 

My doc in Australia charges me $45, and charges the kids $32.

 

When we moved over here, we had a "relocation consultant" who helped us settle in for a month or so. The way she explained the health care system in St Louis was that "family doctors" are a thing of the past, but some people still can use them. We looked into this because we were more familiar with it, but they are really few and far between in our neck of the woods in St Louis. Makes no sense to me.