RANDALZ6 said:
Mexico.
If you have a lawful job at an established institution, or you are a government employee, you, your parents, your spouse and all of your children who are under the age of 25 (I think), get really inexpensive , almost free, healthcare. Provided by one of two public institutions: IMSS or ISSSTE.
A little bit of your paycheck is automatically retained every payday in order to cover your insurance and your family's insurance, you pay half the cost of it whilst your employer pays the rest.
If you need to get a consultation, x-rays, blood-tests, medication, surgery, childbirth, or any other major medical thing, it will be COMPLETELY covered by the insurance. You won't have to pay a dime.
Some rare illnesses may require you to travel to a larger city or to a bigger hospital in order to see a specialist or get a more complex test or procedure, an MRI for example, since most clinics and hospitals located in small towns and neighborhoods only cover the basic stuff.
Cancer treatment, AIDS treatment, diabetes, nutritionists, reproductive health (vasectomies, IUDs, cheap condoms...), and the like are all covered as well free of charge.
The only things I can think of which aren't covered are cavity fillings and other dental procedures besides extractions. Those you must find a private dentist, which you have plenty of options to choose from, ranging from super cheap to uber expensive.
If you get a consultation, your GP will give you a note that you can take to your employer so that you don't lose a day's job.
There are tons of clinics and hospitals, typically one per town or small city, and one for each neighborhood or district in a large city.
Once affiliated you get assigned a particular doctor but if you don't like him/her you can ask to get a different one.
Thanks to having an open market that forces companies to compete with one-another, and thanks to the availability of generics, drugs are often cheap and plentiful, except newer, patent-only ones, of course.
Also if you study medicine you are almost guaranteed to find a well-paying job at a public hospital or clinic, not to mention that medicine students get the chance to study real corpses at public morgues and to treat real people as interns (which doesn't happen in some countries, where they only get to treat plastic dummies until they graduate).
Generally the service is good BUT:
- Most clinics and hospitals are understaffed and underfunded, especially the ones in small towns/neighborhoods, which can result in nurses and/or doctors being tired, indifferent and ineffective, to say the least.
- The latter also causes small clinics and hospitals in heavily-populated areas to be very crowded most of the time.
- Wait times can be painfully long if you're going for a normal consultation without an appointment (emergencies and people with previously-scheduled appointments take priority). This depends on the day and time but you can easily find yourself in a situation that demands hours of your day waiting just to get a half-an-hour consultation. There have been numerous cases all over the country in which elders have dehydrated or women have gone into labor whilst waiting.
- Thanks to the immense government and institutional corruption that plagues our nation, some doctors and managers retire their other doctor friends at ridiculously young ages (think 40-50), which doesn't help the whole understaffed problem.
- Also because of corruption, you can find tons of hospitals with ancient infrastructure and old equipment begging to be fixed/replaced, but the managers/government will keep the funds for themselves.
- Sometimes you get assigned to a terrible doctor who is either rude or incompetent, and you'll be forced to bite the bullet whilst you get reassigned to a different one.
- If you need a non-urgent surgery, it may be scheduled weeks or even months in the future, depending on the demand, the severity of your condition, and on the availability of organs (if needed).
- When you are scheduled a surgery, the hospital doesn't charge you a thing, but you are however asked to donate blood for the hospital's blood bank.
They will ask you to get a certain amount of donors depending on the length of your surgery and severity of your condition, therefore you will be forced to ask your friends and family for help in order to meet your blood quota.
This isn't particularly bad, since you are guaranteed to get other people's blood if you need during your procedure, so it is only logical and socially responsible to give some in return, but the whole process of getting people to actually donate blood on your behalf is cumbersome to say the least.
All things considered, we Mexicans are lucky to have such a service, even though it is FAR from perfect.
I am a government employee and I use it, though I still find myself baffled when I hear that my coworkers prefer paying outrageous sums at private hospitals for the silliest of things, and every now and then I hear people complain of some of the same problems I mentioned before but regarding their experiences at private hospitals.
An uncle of mine, for instance, went to a well-renowned private hospital and ended up getting charged an exorbitant amount of money for a surgery that, after the fact, and after hearing second-opinions from doctors at other private and public hospitals, turned out he didn't even need in the first place.
I have also heard terrible anecdotes from people who went for the public option too, of course, though I suppose we as a society still unconsciously expect more of something when we pay for it, so it may come as a surprise for some to hear that bad service is sometimes provided at private hospitals, just as it may be hard for them to realize that good service is indeed provided at public ones.
Hope this helped. Greetings.
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