Saturday, January 28, 2012

Hong Kong Healthcare

During the Chinese New Year I got some kind of rash on my hand. I put lotion on it and didn’t worry too much about it. It was never painful and really didn’t itch that much. After a few days it was still there, so I went to the hospital.

Hospitals in Hong Kong are very different from American hospitals. In Minnesota, I would have made an appointment with my doctor. I don’t have a doctor in Hong Kong, so I went to the ER – even though it wasn’t an emergency. Nobody seemed to mind.

I waited in a short line and showed them my Hong Kong insurance card and filled out a form. It was in English & Chinese. About a minute later, I was sitting on a bed in a corner of the ER with a really young doctor looking at my hand. My guess is he was just an intern, but that was ok since I wasn’t dying and there were people there who obviously had something worse than a rash.

He looked at my hand and decided it was a reaction to the cold. I told him I’m from Minnesota. We get real winter, not this Hong Kong version of winter. He said it didn’t matter. I don’t think he understood me. His English was quite good, but I don’t think he fully appreciated the difference between our climates.

He gave me a prescription and sent me on my way. I waited in a line downstairs with about a hundred other people, but the line moved quickly. I showed them the paperwork the doctor gave me and paid HK$40 for the ER visit – about US$5 – and another HK$40 for the prescription. In Minnesota, the ER visit would cost a few hundred dollars and the prescription at least $50. The bills would be sent later. In Hong Kong, everything was paid in full before I left the building.

After paying, I waited in another long line that moved even faster, showed them the piece of paper that said I paid and got my prescription.

I still wasn’t convinced that the doctor was right about what caused the rash, but I figured going to the hospital was so easy, and dirt cheap, that I gave the ointment a try.

Two days later the rash was gone.

I’m not an expert on healthcare and how it all works, but it seems to me that if a city the size of Hong Kong can do it so efficiently, it shouldn’t be too hard for Americans. I was in and out quickly and paid almost nothing. Why does it take all day in the United States and cost so much? We say we are the best at everything and can do whatever we set our minds to with grit and determination. Treating patients should be easy.

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