Socialistic Health Care

Like more famous women who travel on ill-advised trips across the world, I got a bladder infection. Since there was no local medicine woman to help me out, I had to turn to more traditional medicine, aka The System.

A lot has been said in the States both for and against socialized health care. I’d heard various tales of ridiculously long waits to see physicians, shortages of necessities, incompetent doctors, and babies being born in bathrooms due to lack of space, so I was curious to see it in action. Ruyman also needed to go to the doctor in order to get a replacement for his CPAP machine, one of those bulky squid-like things you can attach to your face if you have sleep apnea and it breathes for you. 

The doctor’s appointment was set for two days in the future, which seemed reasonable. We saw Ruyman’s family doctor, someone Carmen has seen for years. Ruyman went in on Carmen’s insurance card, which is legal since he is her child. I can’t be listed under Carmen’s card since I am not a blood relative. I’ll have to wait until I get my DNI, the Spanish version of a Social Security number. 

The doctor was an older, stubbly man in regular clothes. He sat behind a desk, asked Ruyman some questions and didn’t do any kind of exam that I could tell. No stethoscope, no blood pressure machine, no nurses. Just him an a desk and an exam table behind a curtain. As he didn’t speak or read English, he had no interest in Ruyman’s carefully prepared medical records from the States. Instead, he wrote Ruyman referrals for pulmonary and gastroenterology specialists.

Then came the topic of me and my bladder. After he understood the situation regarding my citizenship and diabetes, he asked me two questions, and then wrote a prescription for antibiotics under Carmen’s name. We went down one floor and took a number from the dispenser on the wall.  At first, I thought this was a pharmacy. It turned out to be the check out desk for all the doctors in the building. The wait took about 20 minutes. When it was our turn at the desk, the receptionist called to make Ruyman an appointment with the specialists. The appointment with the gastroenterologist is set for December 13, definitely a long wait. The appointment with the pulmonologist, which was marked as urgent by the doctor, is on Wednesday. Carmen then proceeded to talk to the woman at the reception desk for the next half our about this and that. Apparently, they had once been neighbors.

Down the street a few blocks was the pharmacy. The items on display were mostly cosmetics and baby supplies, but near one counter was a tiny spiral slide from the ceiling to the countertop. When Ruyman gave the man the order for the drugs, what I could only imagine was a medical Oompah Loompah dropped the corresponding boxes onto the slide. The cost for ten days’ worth of drugs? Three euros and change.