Dr Chen came to see me for the last time and we asked each other a lot of questions. Lily and Kevin asked their own questions, which the doctor happily answered. When your brain is broken, it helps to have someone else around who might remember everything. And in China, doctors prefer to talk about patients with the family rather than with the patient. Families have a greater say in treatment options than the patient. Lily and Kevin were the only family of mine Dr Chen was ever going to meet.
When I thanked him for the last time, he pointed out that I could give the hospital a positive Yelp review. I thought he was joking, but it turns out there is a Yelp-like website where people can rate the treatment and service of the hospital. I think that is simply crazy.
When I was discharged, they gave me a long list of instructions and several bags of medications. Then we were taken to the billing department. In China, you pay before they treat you, except in emergencies where you pay before you leave. Technically, no one ever receives a bill since everything is supposed to be paid in full before you walk out the door.
Had this all happened in the United States, I would have left the hospital and waited for a bill that I could never hope to pay even if I live to 100. Since it happened in China, Lily paid the balance not covered by insurance.
I'm not interested in getting into the cons and cons of the American healthcare system, but my Hong Kong insurance covered almost everything. Everything that happened in the emergency room, surgery, devices put in me, machines I was hooked onto, bandages, gauze, staples, sutures, needles, drugs taken, flavorless food, doctors, nurses and random unidentifiable people were all covered by insurance. The only thing I (Lily) paid was about $400 for a room and $20 for the bags of medications I took home.
The Great Wall of China part 1
$400 for brain surgery? It would be a million $ here. What if you didn't have insurance in China? Would they kick you to the curb?
ReplyDeleteOnly the rich can afford to get sick in the United States. In China, health care is a basic human right.
ReplyDeleteHad I not had insurance, they still would have treated me, but I might not have had the best doctors available.