Michael: The Cost

The rose colored sky
Will forever pass us by
So enjoy it now.

Tuesday, October 3, 2017

One of my main concerns about returning to the states is health care cost. That’s been one of the big benefits of living in Panama. But up until this crash we really hadn’t experienced the cost of health care outside of routine doctor visits and basic dental care. And we’ve been very pleased with both the care and the cost of our local doctor and dentist.

But this crash exposed me to the cost of trauma care here. I’m not going to try and weight the scale of the relative quality of care I received as I don’t feel I’m qualified to do that. In the states during the few times I had to receive urgent treatment, or care beyond a routine check up, I was working and had health insurance. I was very pleased with the care I received under those circumstances. But I have no idea what care or cost people in the states without insurance receive or what they would pay for treatment for an accident similar to what I just went through. Similarly, I have no idea what kind of care people with private health care insurance receive here or what their out of pocket costs would be. With those caveats stated, I’m just going to put out what my care was here. That’s the costs for a person without insurance being treated at a public hospital.

First off their was the cost of the two x-rays, accompanying CD and ambulance transport from the hospital in Volcan to the hospital in David; $6.

At the David hospital where I stayed for a day and a half I was charged approximately $350. That costs included the stay, the trauma care where I received multiple stitches to my face, three liquid meals (others did receive solid food, but the condition of my mouth would only allow for liquids.), two nurses visits to take blood pressure, heart rate and temperature readings,  three I.V. treatments of serum and anti-biotics, transport to and from another local hospital to have three C.T. scans, the three C.T. scans, a brief consultation with a doctor about the results of my scans, and three written prescriptions from that doctor; one for an anti-inflammatory, one for an anti-biotic, and one to have my stitches removed in a week.

The two drug prescriptions we had filled at a local pharmacy costs $55. The drugs are 500 mg. tablets of Cetalepan which I’m suppose to take every 8 hours for a week, and 30 mg. tablets of Supradol which I’m suppose to take every 12 hours for a week.
I don’t know yet what the cost will be to have my stitches removed. I also have a chipped tooth that I’ll have my dentist look at as soon as the swelling in my mouth goes down.

That brings the total to date to just a little over $410.

We’ve been told that we could’ve set up a payment plan as that cost could be a bit overwhelming for a poor Panamanian, but we paid out of pocket so have no idea how a payment plan would be set up or how payments would be made. But I’m almost positive it would be done by going to the hospital and paying cash in person.

I’m not going to google what the costs would’ve been for similar treatment in the states. I wouldn’t even think about returning to the states without first having a plan to have at least basic health care insurance and supplemental emergency care coverage. Three years ago, right before we left California, our Bronze plan and an additional emergency care plan was costing us about $350 a month.