Hey, Frenchie.
People who have jobs at companies that offer good health insurance are able to stay healthy and keep their teeth in good repair and get eyeglasses when they need them. People who work for themselves or people who work for companies that don\'t offer health insurance or only very marginal health insurance cannot afford any preventative maintenance nor much care. They tend to go to the emergency room after something has got to a critical stage because they\'ve held off, hoping it would just go away, because they couldn\'t afford a doctor. A physical can cost a good $1,500.00. A non-specific ailment can easily run into the thousands. It depends on what complaint you present with and how much you know about your own condition. If you go into the doctor and say \"I have a sinus infection. I know this because I have exactly the same symptoms I had before. I want so and so medication. Write me a prescription.\" You can get out of the office for maybe $150.00 for the office visit, plus the cost of the prescription. However, if you go to the doctor and say my nose is stuffy and I don\'t know why, he is under obligation to run as many tests as would rule out whatever could possibly be wrong with your nose. If he misses something, you could come back and sue him for negligence, which will make his malpractice insurance go up. The more tests he orders, the more money you have to pay.
Insurance is extremely expensive. $200-350 dollars a month is not at all unusual. I work for a big fat ass law firm with more money than god and I don\'t have to pay anything, but it took me my entire life to get to this point. Years ago, with smaller firms, I could not afford a physical and most of the time could not afford a doctor, because I couldn\'t afford the visit NOR could I afford to pay for health insurance.
Many, many people here just cannot afford to go to the doctor.
And it\'s funny what you say about the perception that we don\'t take precautions about substances ... I\'ve had the perception that many things are approved in Europe that are not approved here - so, just the opposite perception. [img]/ubbthreads/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]
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