A Personal Experience in Socialized Medical Care

 

In the US a medical problem would never have been addressed so easily or cheaply!  It is after hours.   A problem necessitates an immediate visit.  A call to the doctor, whose office is across the street, brings him in from his weekend for an appointment in two hours.  He cheerfully opens the office, makes the exam, proscribes an inexpensive herbal medicine and heads back to the golf course; cost: €21 (about $30). This is not the government-subsidized rate for Austrians, but the full rate for foreigners.  This is how the system is set up.

A taste of the American system can be had two doors down at the pharmacy.  An Austrian citizen pays no more than about $8 for any medicine, however expensive it is.  Meanwhile foreigners who are not covered under the state plan are subject to whatever the drug company wants to charge.  Like almost $1 each for aspirin!

And I'm sure one will never hear this discussed in the current debate: In Austria the doctors have offices among the people, like the bakaries and coffee shops, not in some gleaming insitution.  It feels like visiting a neighbor rather than a corporate headquarters.  That is purely an esthetic observation, but in the case of one's health I think it makes an enormous difference.