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Had a day off, so took the girls to the vet for their vaccinations. We were supposed to sedate Smokey (who takes very badly to the act of vaccination) but didn't do so on an empty stomach. Result: one freaked out kitteh who bit me after the vaccination when I tried to comfort her.
Otherwise, my day off was rather nice: met a friend for lunch in the city, wrote a little, read a little, generally relaxed.
So, I'd already had that thumb whacked on the hockey field the day before. It was not a happy thumb.
We washed the bite site out very thoroughly at the vet surgery (it was pretty deep) with some antibacterial wash, but the vet still recommended I get antibiotics just in case. My family doctor (my uncle) doesn't work on Mondays, the medical centre I usually attend was out of appointments until this morning but I made an appointment anyway, and then I tried a medical centre that's even closer but which I'd never tried before.
Five minutes after hanging up from calling, I was sitting in the waiting room filling out a questionnaire about my medical history (and my family's).
The doc was about 60-70 years old, Indian/Pakistani background but had been here a LONG time - accent was trace, he was quite familiar with the territory, knew about 'Australian Born Chinese'. Lovely guy, nicely chatty, gently apologetic when he had to ask questions of a personal nature ("are you sexually active", "are you on the pill", "you've marked down that you've taken painkillers, would you be willing to tell me why", "how much do you drink/do you think that's too much - I mean that in a non-judgemental way - do you think that's too much?"), and it turns out he knows my uncle-the-doctor, too. It's the Old Guard of immigrated-young-stayed-here-raised-families-practise-hippocratic-oathracy doctors, I swear. They all know each other and are the best kind of docs.
He checked the wound, cleaned it out (also oldskool: acetone, hydrogen peroxide, methylated spirits, and mercurochrome), wrote me a scrip for antibiotics to be filled out at the local pharmacy/chemist, and sent me on my way.
I handed over my medicare card to the surgery office manager and waited for the bill. It didn't come. Medicare covered it entirely. Which, usually Medicare covers most of it, or some of it, but you end up with a 'gap' payment, because the Medicare fee has barely changed in God only knows how long, but medical practitioner costs have gone up and up and up. Plus, even if the surgery/doctor claims back the medicare on your behalf, it's still pain and paperwork they'd rather not. Easier to get the money up front and ask you to do the paperwork so you claim Medicare back. That's the new way.
Did I mention that this doc was old school?
Basically, I walked out of there and paid all of $14 for a doctor's appointment (which I got in less than 15 minutes from call to seeing the doctor) and to fill a scrip for a 7-day course of antibiotics. The medication might have cost $17, but I got the 'no-name' brand of amoxyllin 500 rather than the branded one, so: cheaper.
Frankly, It's the little maintaining things that a socialised health system needs to cover - things that keep us going: antibiotics in case of infection, etc. A friend of mine didn't see the doc as soon as she should have when her cat bit her - not because she couldn't afford it, because she didn't want to. But when it turned septic on Saturday she spent the weekend in hospital and if she had work today, she sure isn't going to be there!
In other countries, it's not a case of "don't want to" it's a case of "can't afford to". And, frankly, the loss in not being willing to afford the little maintenances of the body and mind (antibiotics, vaccinations, mammograms, pap smears, prostate checks) is lost manpower, social effectiveness, and stress for the individual.
Oh, and my private health insurance? Helps cover hospital care, ambulance service, and more major work
Let's not even get onto the whole "you don't get to have insurance if you don't have a job" business. I've been in and out of productive work over the last 25 years - more often in than out. But whether I was in or out, I was covered by Medicare, and by my private health insurance over and above that.
Health is important, yo. And the point of insurance is to play risk roulette - some people put lots in and get little out, other people put lots in and get lots out.
--
Anyway, we are one win away from being top of the division table no matter what. We won 2-0 on Sunday (no goals from me), but it was not a pretty game. We lost our cool in small and subtle ways, shouty woman was shouty, people got cross, the opposing team's players were kind of mean in personality. Ugh.
Otherwise, my day off was rather nice: met a friend for lunch in the city, wrote a little, read a little, generally relaxed.
So, I'd already had that thumb whacked on the hockey field the day before. It was not a happy thumb.
We washed the bite site out very thoroughly at the vet surgery (it was pretty deep) with some antibacterial wash, but the vet still recommended I get antibiotics just in case. My family doctor (my uncle) doesn't work on Mondays, the medical centre I usually attend was out of appointments until this morning but I made an appointment anyway, and then I tried a medical centre that's even closer but which I'd never tried before.
Five minutes after hanging up from calling, I was sitting in the waiting room filling out a questionnaire about my medical history (and my family's).
The doc was about 60-70 years old, Indian/Pakistani background but had been here a LONG time - accent was trace, he was quite familiar with the territory, knew about 'Australian Born Chinese'. Lovely guy, nicely chatty, gently apologetic when he had to ask questions of a personal nature ("are you sexually active", "are you on the pill", "you've marked down that you've taken painkillers, would you be willing to tell me why", "how much do you drink/do you think that's too much - I mean that in a non-judgemental way - do you think that's too much?"), and it turns out he knows my uncle-the-doctor, too. It's the Old Guard of immigrated-young-stayed-here-raised-families-practise-hippocratic-oathracy doctors, I swear. They all know each other and are the best kind of docs.
He checked the wound, cleaned it out (also oldskool: acetone, hydrogen peroxide, methylated spirits, and mercurochrome), wrote me a scrip for antibiotics to be filled out at the local pharmacy/chemist, and sent me on my way.
I handed over my medicare card to the surgery office manager and waited for the bill. It didn't come. Medicare covered it entirely. Which, usually Medicare covers most of it, or some of it, but you end up with a 'gap' payment, because the Medicare fee has barely changed in God only knows how long, but medical practitioner costs have gone up and up and up. Plus, even if the surgery/doctor claims back the medicare on your behalf, it's still pain and paperwork they'd rather not. Easier to get the money up front and ask you to do the paperwork so you claim Medicare back. That's the new way.
Did I mention that this doc was old school?
Basically, I walked out of there and paid all of $14 for a doctor's appointment (which I got in less than 15 minutes from call to seeing the doctor) and to fill a scrip for a 7-day course of antibiotics. The medication might have cost $17, but I got the 'no-name' brand of amoxyllin 500 rather than the branded one, so: cheaper.
Frankly, It's the little maintaining things that a socialised health system needs to cover - things that keep us going: antibiotics in case of infection, etc. A friend of mine didn't see the doc as soon as she should have when her cat bit her - not because she couldn't afford it, because she didn't want to. But when it turned septic on Saturday she spent the weekend in hospital and if she had work today, she sure isn't going to be there!
In other countries, it's not a case of "don't want to" it's a case of "can't afford to". And, frankly, the loss in not being willing to afford the little maintenances of the body and mind (antibiotics, vaccinations, mammograms, pap smears, prostate checks) is lost manpower, social effectiveness, and stress for the individual.
Oh, and my private health insurance? Helps cover hospital care, ambulance service, and more major work
Let's not even get onto the whole "you don't get to have insurance if you don't have a job" business. I've been in and out of productive work over the last 25 years - more often in than out. But whether I was in or out, I was covered by Medicare, and by my private health insurance over and above that.
Health is important, yo. And the point of insurance is to play risk roulette - some people put lots in and get little out, other people put lots in and get lots out.
--
Anyway, we are one win away from being top of the division table no matter what. We won 2-0 on Sunday (no goals from me), but it was not a pretty game. We lost our cool in small and subtle ways, shouty woman was shouty, people got cross, the opposing team's players were kind of mean in personality. Ugh.
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Ah well, I am taking antibiotics steadily.
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And that person who still has to go to work might be the childcare worker looking after my kid, the driver of my bus, the person who processes my payroll, or the person making my lunch. All of which make my life a leetle bit easier by their work; while my (proportional) taxes are supposed to make their life a little bit easier with services that they might not otherwise have the money to easily access...
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FUCKING SERIOUSLY. The difference between the ambulances at the foot of the cliff and putting up some fencing at the edge, right? -- also from what I know, cat bites are srs bsns.
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But yeah, prevention is so much better than cure. Which should be obvious - get it early, and you keep a person alive. Even in economic rationalist terms, that person is a resource which time, effort, and energy has been expended upon; keeping them at a decent level of productivity would surely be considered a good investment rather than running them into the ground? (IDK. Maybe this is why I'm not an economist.)
And we're not talking cancer and major things - even just the knowledge that an accident won't cost your financial future makes a huge difference emotionally.
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(Says the person in the US, who has to stop going to her neurologist because she just can't pay 400 USD for a pure consultation.)
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IIRC, my last neurological visit cost about $150 per consultation, which I thought was pretty steep... In USD that's probably about $100.
Admittedly, it was a private practise that wasn't subsidised by either Medicare or my health fund, but that was my choice to pay it out of pocket for peace of mind. And if I hadn't had that option, then there would have been public health options, they'd just probably take longer and involve specific clinics. But they'd have been cheaper at least. There are definitely limits to what a public healthcare system can cover, but even knowing that the basics won't cripple you would be a relief.