Friday, May 20, 2011

The Health of Nations?

Magical health insurance card with clearly touched up picture of yours truly
Malaria pills and immunization certificate (World Health Organization approved!)

I took a trip to the big ol' city of Taipei for a travel medicine consultation.  In Taiwan, land of national healthcare, you can go to any medical facility, whip out your health insurance card and get some medical attention!  I got the yellow fever vaccine and 2 months worth of malaria pills.  

Medical consultation + vaccine + pills = 2101 NT$ or 67 US$             

To give this some perspective, last year I got the Japanese Encephalitis vaccine in America.  The shot alone cost me 350 US$.  Today I saw the same shot available at the Taiwanese clinic for 10 US$.    

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

welcome to the reality of healthcare costs in America, vs most other nations. +s & -s

-UN

Jeanette said...

do they retouch the pic for you? or do you submit the photo yourself?

it's really amazing that they extend their healthcare to visitors!

Jess / Stew Stew said...

UN, "-s & +s?"...is "s" savings?

Jeanette, all the ID photo places automatically add the Asian "gloss over" effect. Even the taxi drivers have it on their IDs lol

And the healthcare inclusion is amazing. I'm so freaking lucky!

Anonymous said...

+s & -s means

pluses & minuses, of the different (healthcare) systems.

UN

iheartfootball said...

thanks for sharing!! in my maymester today we did a cross tab evaluation of america's poor and their health vs canada and uk's poor and their health (given the context of the latter 2 countries having a more comprehensive health care for all citizens) and its truly interesting/and have dramatic effects. cant wait for you to get back so we can talk about stuff like this and capitalism and stuff!

-carolham

Jess / Stew Stew said...

for sure, carolham! sounds like you're taking some bad ass courses. my healthcare experiences in the US of A were largely negative but i my health insurance was through an HMO uuuughhhh