I am not comparing different healthcare systems. I am simply reporting what I experienced below, and consider it our ER alternative for healthcare:
I contracted pneumonia last month during my annual travel back to my home country (small country in Asia, not one of those 3rd world countries though). We are dual citizens and covered by universal healthcare system back home.
Two days after we landed, I started to have a fever (38.5 C = 101.3 F). I first went to a local clinic and received antibiotic pills. Three days later, doctor told me to go to hospital ER immediately because my temperature persisted. I went to the ER of a large hospital in my city. They did an X-ray, a blood test, an EKG for my heart, and showed that I have pneumonia and needed to be checked into hospital right away.
For the next 14 days, I stayed in the hospital. The doctor that was assigned to me tried 3 kinds of antibiotic on me via IV. The first 2 did not bring down my temperature, only the 3rd one finally and gradually did. The nurse tried to ask me to produce mucus so they can do culture and find out what germs that caused my pneumonia. But I only had dry cough without any mucus.
Doctor and the hospital did a lot of tests on me overall: total 3 X-rays, 3 blood tests, a CT-scan, an ultrasound, and EKG, and a procedure that inserted a tube thru my nose to the lung to clean and extract the mucus. The whole time, numerous nurses and care-takers on different shifts around the clock that administered my IV, pills, meals, and newspaper. I was in a private room with my TV on the whole time too.
My DW had to take a taxi to the hospital in the mornings; stayed with me the whole day; take taxi home late afternoon to our apartment in the city which is next to her parents'.
This is my first hospital stay in either my home country or in US. So I can not compare the qualify of the care that I received but the doctor and nurses there all seem very professional and seem to know what they are doing. They explained to me daily of what the plan is and I was quite comfortable of the care. The only thing that I did not understand is why the doctor there could not prescribe the right antibiotic the first time. I would have stayed just for one cycle of the IV (7 days), instead of 2 failed in mid-cycle and had to go on the 3rd full cycle (which made my stay a total of 14 days).
In the end, the bill that I received is a small slip of paper with 14 items on it. I had to pay for the private room, otherwise the shared rooms would have been no cost to patients with coverage. The actual medical cost in all is around $1,900 US dollars. If you are a foreigner with no insurance, I guess this is what you would pay. Since I am covered, my out of pocket is 11% = $211.27 US dollars. The hospital provided me the Discharge Diagnosis in English, and a CD with my X-ray images. After I came back to US, I showed my primary doctor these, and my doctor said they tried "everything", maybe excessively.
We are very surprised with the low cost. We are still w*rking in US (me 61 and DW 56 now) because we are still relying on employer health plan in US. DW is now thinking we could ER and have a catastrophic hospital stay plan in US. With any non life threatening illness, we could buy a plane ticket; fly home; seek care there and still be much cheaper. We may have to stay in hospital much longer than the US system but a private room is something we can live with.
I contracted pneumonia last month during my annual travel back to my home country (small country in Asia, not one of those 3rd world countries though). We are dual citizens and covered by universal healthcare system back home.
Two days after we landed, I started to have a fever (38.5 C = 101.3 F). I first went to a local clinic and received antibiotic pills. Three days later, doctor told me to go to hospital ER immediately because my temperature persisted. I went to the ER of a large hospital in my city. They did an X-ray, a blood test, an EKG for my heart, and showed that I have pneumonia and needed to be checked into hospital right away.
For the next 14 days, I stayed in the hospital. The doctor that was assigned to me tried 3 kinds of antibiotic on me via IV. The first 2 did not bring down my temperature, only the 3rd one finally and gradually did. The nurse tried to ask me to produce mucus so they can do culture and find out what germs that caused my pneumonia. But I only had dry cough without any mucus.
Doctor and the hospital did a lot of tests on me overall: total 3 X-rays, 3 blood tests, a CT-scan, an ultrasound, and EKG, and a procedure that inserted a tube thru my nose to the lung to clean and extract the mucus. The whole time, numerous nurses and care-takers on different shifts around the clock that administered my IV, pills, meals, and newspaper. I was in a private room with my TV on the whole time too.
My DW had to take a taxi to the hospital in the mornings; stayed with me the whole day; take taxi home late afternoon to our apartment in the city which is next to her parents'.
This is my first hospital stay in either my home country or in US. So I can not compare the qualify of the care that I received but the doctor and nurses there all seem very professional and seem to know what they are doing. They explained to me daily of what the plan is and I was quite comfortable of the care. The only thing that I did not understand is why the doctor there could not prescribe the right antibiotic the first time. I would have stayed just for one cycle of the IV (7 days), instead of 2 failed in mid-cycle and had to go on the 3rd full cycle (which made my stay a total of 14 days).
In the end, the bill that I received is a small slip of paper with 14 items on it. I had to pay for the private room, otherwise the shared rooms would have been no cost to patients with coverage. The actual medical cost in all is around $1,900 US dollars. If you are a foreigner with no insurance, I guess this is what you would pay. Since I am covered, my out of pocket is 11% = $211.27 US dollars. The hospital provided me the Discharge Diagnosis in English, and a CD with my X-ray images. After I came back to US, I showed my primary doctor these, and my doctor said they tried "everything", maybe excessively.
We are very surprised with the low cost. We are still w*rking in US (me 61 and DW 56 now) because we are still relying on employer health plan in US. DW is now thinking we could ER and have a catastrophic hospital stay plan in US. With any non life threatening illness, we could buy a plane ticket; fly home; seek care there and still be much cheaper. We may have to stay in hospital much longer than the US system but a private room is something we can live with.
