A rant about the local health department.
I absolutely abhor going to the county health department. Unfortunately, it is a necessary evil since I have to get a yearly TB test for work and the health department is the only place I can get this done.
It's full of poor people, babies, and small children, and anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely despise two of the above. (Poor people aren't so bad.)
I joke of course.
But seriously. Denizens of the local trailer parks with huge cross tattoos wearing dirty clothes followed by obnoxious children with runny noses that insist on touching EVERYTHING with their sticky fingers (including me), people that can't speak english, high school dropouts, it really is a collection of the county's finest.
I always schedule an appointment, so I have to spend as little time in the waiting room as possible.
Apparently it doesn't matter if you have an appointment, you still have to wait for at least 30 minutes to get seen.
Allow me to give you an example.
I scheduled an appointment. I showed up about 5 minutes early, signed in on the sheet, and filled out my paperwork. I waited. Then I waited some more. About 20 minutes had gone by, so I asked the receptionist how much longer. She said "Just a few more minutes." I sat back down. Several walk ins show up without appointments, and they got service pretty much immediately. I also note that they all have small children. Twenty minutes have gone by. I go back up to the desk. "I thought you said it wouldn't be much longer. I've been waiting 40 minutes! And I have an appointment!" The receptionist looks at me blankly, like she didn't just speak to me less than a half hour ago. "Did you sign in on the sheet?" I answer with a terse "yes". She picks up the clipboard, looks through her bifocals and says "Oh! We must've skipped you! Have a seat. We'll be with you in about five minutes."
I wanted to bash her in the head with her telephone and strangle her to death with the cord. Instead I sat back down.
The ironic thing about me having to wait so long is that a TB test takes maybe a minute, two tops to complete. I had just spent three quarters of an hour waiting for someone to inject .1 ml of fluid into my arm. It's ridiculous. Apparently my lack of child means that my time is less valuable, and can be wasted. (Which it is--wasted that is--but I'll decide when and where that happens!) I just need to find some little kid I can bribe into going with me, so I can get service faster. Or a baby. That would be even better!
"Oh are we seeing little Timmy today?"
"Nope, I just need a TB test. Couldn't get my usual sitter to watch him, she's hungover. You know how it is."
"Right this way."
*Cue the angelic chorus, I walk towards a door bathed in bright light*
At last, I'd get the service I deserve at that hell hole.
Labels: Anyone have any kids I can borrow for my next appointment?
posted by colonel eggroll @ 11:07 PM
10 Comments:
Huh. I thought the US solved that problem by not giving health care to poor people :P
TB? I think our health department goes into meltdown when they find TB cases these days (unless they're from one of our local, friendly, detention centres and then, really, who cares, we're sending them back anyways..).
P.S. Not everyone sends in the army, Mark.
If your a poor adult, you get no health care. But poor babies? That's another story altogether.
Damn babies. They get everything.
The thing I don't understand, is that criminals in maximum security prisons get better health care than your average american citizen. It makes no sense. They are CRIMINALS. If someone's on death row and needs a transplant, they shouldn't get one because they're gonna die anyway!
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't have TB.
I have to go cough up a pint of blood now.
Inspired by your post, I decided to see how the Australian health care system was structured and financed, just to find out whether I need health insurance.
It was complicated.
It turns out health insurance is really expensive and you only need it if you have serious health issues or need glasses. It's an ok system. Anyway, thanks for getting me to find out where I stand.
so is it the case then that AU's system is free for basic, routine med care and you only get insurance to see speacialists like eye and skin docs?
Not really. The government pays for most of everything but there's often a 'gap' amount above that, and you have to pay it yourself or get it on your insurance. So a GP consult at the university clinic is free for all comers, but somewhere else it might cost fifteen bucks. I think that system applies to specialists as well, but they can still be pretty expensive. After that, there is a 'safety net' system that limits the total you can spend on gap payments per year. I think.
Medicines are subsidised by the government but not free, which is more about preventing kickbacks than anything.
Stuff like dental you get for yourself or on insurance. There are free public dentists, but they're for the poor.
So the system costs a bit, and the quality of care isn't always the same as going private, but you get what you need.
Mark-Your welcome! :) That does sound like it's really complicated. Better to find out now where you stand rather than try to do it later when you need medical attention I suppose. I spent quite a few years without any health insurance, and now that I'm older, I shudder to think what could've happened if I'd gotten severely sick during that time.
And thanks for answering eddie's question. We were both wondering the same thing.
Mark - our health insurance premiums (for private cover, which is entirely optional) is a tiny fraction of the price of health insurance in the US.
A single person would pay around $1000 a year for good private hospital cover, a few hundred more if they want glasses, dental, physio, or whatnot as well.
An entire family, of mum, dad, and however many kids, would be up for around a couple of thousand a year, plus the extras, if they wanted them.
In addition, while there is a "waiting period" for "preexisting" conditions (usually a year), we have true community risk rating insurance, which means no one can be refused insurance and no one can be charged more for insurance no matter what illnesses or diseases they have had in the past.
Everyone pays 1% of their annual income toward the universal gov't funded health cover, that is, it comes out of their tax, except low income earners, or the unemployed, who don't have to pay that extra tax.
Other than that minor point, you've done a pretty good job of grasping the basics.
Although I must add, in practice, it's not even a little bit complicated. Eazy peazy.
FYI.
Yep, I agree with all that except about insurance rates. I used some web sites and found rates of about $600 a year for basic insurance - ie. it's a great deal cheaper that $1000+, but not really a tiny fraction. Sorry I keep disagreeing with you about things :)
Perhaps I misunderstood your initial point Mark, I thought you suggested that insurance in Australia is very expensive.
If you take off the 30% tax rebate on private health insurance, then yes, a single person might be able to get away with good basic cover for $600.
I was offering more of an "average" for good private cover (mid to upper coverage). I do actually live here, and do actually have private cover, so I have some idea of what I pay, and what my friends pay.
I have read anecdotes about Americans, for example with cancer, who have to beg to get any cover, and when they find it, it might be $50,000 per year. Now, I would have said THAT was EXPENSIVE!! Okay, that's an "abnormal" rate, but even normal premiums are many multiples of ours.
In other words, what I was suggesting was that our insurance premiums are paltry compared to those paid in the US, but then our medical costs, whether for major surgery, visiting a GP, or for pharmaceuticals are not anywhere new the exorbitant charges that the folk in the US pay (even taking into account the exchange rates).
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