"DO YOU KNOW I have, (A) , a MORTGAGE to pay, (B), THREE children to support, (C), a household to keep afloat, and this is.... this is... is......" words fail me. Earlier I stared stupidly at a snotty faced minion in the blood testing department when she advised me that I had better hand over €110 euro, or no blood test for me. I have a medical condition which, while it can be treated, can' be neglected. Having in fact neglected it for some time, due to the expense, I had submitted my self to scanning and consultant, a few weeks past, paid €500 for this, and he, the consultant, decided on a cunning plan to put me on a regime involving fortnightly visits to a nurse to titrate medications upwards, following on a blood test. I learned, after the first visit that the NURSE cost €50. On this the second visit, I learned that the preliminary blood test was €55, and that they forgotten to tell me last time.
A total then of €155 this time, and €105 hereafter, with a further €50 for medications, EVERY TIME. The figures danced about in my brain as I scrambled over to the nurse, who harangued me for tardiness. (I had rushed to the hospital during my lunch hour) leading to the above outburst ( spluttering, as you see to an exhausted and disgusted halt)
The thing is that I have no choice. I have medical insurance, rapidly becoming unaffordable, which offers no contribution to this. My salary is average, I am not eligible for medical cards or any other sort of contribution. These people simply milk you for cash for necessary treatments. Doctors fees were always high and they have reduced not one whit in this recession. There is no attempt to look at a financial plan for the unfortunate sick person. . Payments for doctor visits, tests, are applied without discussion or estimate. The stark fact of the matter is that medical doctors accept a far smaller fee for patients with medical cards, place these at the end of the list when it comes to necessary hospital treatments, and hold the rest of us to ransom, with medical care that is unaffordable.. Or at least I would like to know how it can be afforded, and who can afford it?
There is no attempt by our quite quite hopeless government to rein them in, to control prices, and working folks skimp on necessary medical care, because it is over priced. This information is perfectly clear and available to they medical establishment when they apply these prices. A case of indifference then or good old fashioned opportunism. .
Anyway, I dismissed the nurse, I intend to thrash something out with my GP re prescription and surgery blood tests in the future, and will return to the consultant when I can afford it. I am saving up.
And as to value, the nurse was patronising, adopted a one size fits all approach. In fact you might have been eight or eighty and a little slow to boot, for all the distinction she made. And repetitive, with largely redundant advice. To justify the cash extraction? I left each time feeling diminished, worried, broke and extremely irritated. The consultant will charge the same sum every three months if we adhere to the cunning plan. It is hard indeed not to feel frisked, turned over, mugged almost, and that, my friends is so not therapeutic.
A total then of €155 this time, and €105 hereafter, with a further €50 for medications, EVERY TIME. The figures danced about in my brain as I scrambled over to the nurse, who harangued me for tardiness. (I had rushed to the hospital during my lunch hour) leading to the above outburst ( spluttering, as you see to an exhausted and disgusted halt)
The thing is that I have no choice. I have medical insurance, rapidly becoming unaffordable, which offers no contribution to this. My salary is average, I am not eligible for medical cards or any other sort of contribution. These people simply milk you for cash for necessary treatments. Doctors fees were always high and they have reduced not one whit in this recession. There is no attempt to look at a financial plan for the unfortunate sick person. . Payments for doctor visits, tests, are applied without discussion or estimate. The stark fact of the matter is that medical doctors accept a far smaller fee for patients with medical cards, place these at the end of the list when it comes to necessary hospital treatments, and hold the rest of us to ransom, with medical care that is unaffordable.. Or at least I would like to know how it can be afforded, and who can afford it?
There is no attempt by our quite quite hopeless government to rein them in, to control prices, and working folks skimp on necessary medical care, because it is over priced. This information is perfectly clear and available to they medical establishment when they apply these prices. A case of indifference then or good old fashioned opportunism. .
Anyway, I dismissed the nurse, I intend to thrash something out with my GP re prescription and surgery blood tests in the future, and will return to the consultant when I can afford it. I am saving up.
And as to value, the nurse was patronising, adopted a one size fits all approach. In fact you might have been eight or eighty and a little slow to boot, for all the distinction she made. And repetitive, with largely redundant advice. To justify the cash extraction? I left each time feeling diminished, worried, broke and extremely irritated. The consultant will charge the same sum every three months if we adhere to the cunning plan. It is hard indeed not to feel frisked, turned over, mugged almost, and that, my friends is so not therapeutic.
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