Hospitals and Earthquakes

It's been quite an eventful week. I'm finally on the road to a full recovery. Yay! :)

This morning I was abruptuly woken by a small earthquake. It lasted about 15 seconds. No damage and no injuries, but still quite a shocking way to wake up! But all is well. :)

Being sick this past week gives me an opportunity to tell you a bit about the health care and hospitals over here. Most Indonesians don't have health insurance. If someone gets sick, you just pay for treatment out of pocket. And yet the treatments are so much cheaper than if you had to pay out of pocket in the USA. Interesting...

I started out feeling very achey, like the flu was coming. Then the bad stomeache cramps started. Diarreha and vomiting for 4 or 5 days can really leave a person feeling week. We had tried to find some over the counter medicine, but with little luck. They don't have NyQuil or Beptobismal so I hardly slept a night. We did find some medicine but it didn't do much. We finally called a local friend and asked for a recommendation for a doctor or hospital. Naturally, we were both weary about what kind of sanitation and skill we would find in a local hospital.

The International SOS Medical Clinic was recommended and we took a taxi over there immediately. Much to my surprise, and great relief, it was clean, safe and well-staffed by very skilled and knowledgeable doctors and nurses. It's an Australian company that has SOS clinics all over the world, catering mostly to travellers. My doctor spoke great English and she was very knowledgeable about all the things I mentioned in my health history and I was immediately comfortable with her competence.

The doctor visit was $68, the lab tests $10 and the medicine to kill my parasite was $30 = $108 total. Not bad for no insurance and paying out of pocket!! Could you imagine how expensive it would have been to pay out of pocket in the US?! Plus, no waiting and the clinic is open 24/7. Perhaps "free healthcare" isn't the answer...perhaps the US should take a closer look at health insurance and why it's so expensive in the first place and what it's doing to make plain-ol-treatments and doctor visits so expensive without it...why do we need a health insurance plan at all?

What's your thoughts?