Medical Things

It has occurred to me that I have not spoken about some of the really mundane aspects of life over here, so today I'll concentrate on one of those. First of all, one of the things you have to realize is there are 2 types of insurance. In one, you pay a flat fee of 17 SRA (about $5.00 US)no matter what and that's all you ever pay. That is for the "local" insurance which is not good outside of Saudi. If you choose International Insurance, it's good anywhere in the world, however it is all on the reimbursement plan, pay up front and then get it back. I imagine the horror going through your minds right now but in cases of catastrophic events, you don't have to pay up front, we're only talking routine kinds of visits here.

Let me start with an example. A few months back, I aggravated my knee by too much treadmill use. It was constantly hot to the touch and slightly swollen and it hurt so I decided to go get it looked at. Now here is the chain of events. I went to an orthopedist who had me do X-rays and an MRI. He also did bloodwork. After he got the reports back he prescribed PT (I'll get into that a little later). Now my first question to you would be just how much did all this cost? If you think in US terms you are already into 4 figures and going up, correct? Not so here. Medical care is reliable and inexpensive. My total charge for all of the above inlcuding all the PT and all of the diagnostic work was less than $500.00 US. That's not my share, that is truly the total cost. As you know, you would spent over $1000 just for the MRI back in the US, never mind everything else. All of the doctors I've come in contact with are western educated, see you on time and the medical records system is much more efficient. No carrying X-rays around, everything is digital and available on demand.

Prescription drugs as we know them do not exist. You can walk into any drug store and get anything you want short of narcotics by simply asking. To get a course of antibiotics you just ask and it costs about $5.00, again, that is the total cost, not a co-pay. All of the meds available at home are not available here and in contrast they have things here they we have never seen back there. The exact same med that I take here costs one-third of what it used to cost me in the states. You really start to wonder. Again, there is no insurance involved in this, things simply cost less, a lot less.

The doctors I have seen have been uniformly wonderful. You are seen at your appointment time, by the actual doctor, not a PA or nurse. They know their stuff. They answer all your questions and encourage you to ask questions. They talk to their patients and develop realtionships with them. Another sidebar, when you go to a doctor you only pay for the intial visit, all follow up visits are free. Most doctors charge about $50.00 US for a visit on an average.

As far as the hospitals, gorgeous. Beautiful buildings, there's even a doorman at the entrance, kind of like a hotel, to let you out of your car. Seriously, he wears the hat and coat just like at the Ritz. The rooms themselves are quite lovely. They are all private rooms, they have attached sitting rooms and full baths. If it's meal time, they feed all of your guests as well as you. Except for the hospital bed and medical equipment, the rest of it has more of a hotel feel to it. We know folks who've had heart procedures done, infectious diseases, you name it, and the care has been uniformly excellent all the way around.

The nursing staff tends to be Filipino almost exclusively. Doctors come from all over the place. Reception staff tends to be Saudi. I have no idea why it's that way, it just is. They work much longer hours. Doctors have appointments at almost any time of the day. If you can come at 9 PM, you have an appointment at 9PM. Every doctor sees patients at night as well as days. There are no "visiting hours." You can come any time you want and stay for as long as you want. The typical thing to bring when visiting is food becuase even in a hospital bed, the lcoals want to be able to offer their guests snacks. There are refrigerators in the rooms and tea and coffee service as well as juice, milk and water, are always available in the room.

Anyway, thought you would like that quick snapshot. I'd love to take pictures, but it's frowned upon to take pictures of public buildings.