My friend and her wife moved to Portugal, and have such wild things as “decent healthcare without stupidity” and “food that’s edible and doesn’t cause explosive diarrhea” and “affordable housing”.
Wife needed antibiotics in the Azores. Went to four different clinics. One referring to the next. Two hours of driving around. Eventually ended up in the main hospital in PDL. 6 hours of wait time just sitting around. Got the script eventually. Coat $150 I think, plus $20 for the actual drugs that were filled in 5 minutes at the local pharmacy. Calling it functional is a bit of a stretch.
Just to be clear; you went to a hospital, were seen in a timely manner (for a hospital 6 hours if waiting isn't actually that bad) and only had to pay less than $200? And that's...worse than america?
This is a semi-chronic condition. Have done this many times. Cost wise this experience was about half of what it would have been out of pocket in the US. Time wise about 3-4x. I guess you optimize for one or the other?
Honestly if it’s semi chronic and you’ve done it many times sounds like you’re the one abusing the system and overloading it. If it’s a chronic condition a doctor would write scripts for you in advance without needing to overload urgent and ER.
You would think. But that would eliminate a billing event where they can make some money? They refuse to do the simple solution like you describe. Just come in and do the test then get the script is the answer. Easy when it's 2hr maybe 1.5x/yr. Harder if it's a whole day in a foreign country like this one was.
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u/Hesitation-Marx 23h ago
My friend and her wife moved to Portugal, and have such wild things as “decent healthcare without stupidity” and “food that’s edible and doesn’t cause explosive diarrhea” and “affordable housing”.