Up until recently, I had faith in American health care system. Really I did.
I believed that in the event I became sick or ill, I could be treated promptly and could recover quickly from any symptoms I contracted.
However, after a recent cold and cough I had, I’m not sure if I feel the same anymore.
I’m not sure if it was some sort of virus I got or if I just got ill because I have been bombarded with work and school lately. Whatever it was, the sickness hit me hard.
I had not been really sick in a long time so it affected me more than I expected. I felt really under the weather so I got my father to go with me to get some medical help.
However, it was Saturday, so I could not see my own doctor and was forced to check into an urgent care center.
We pulled up to the first urgent care center to find it with 25 people waiting in the lobby. I was certain that they were not going to be able to see me at least until closing hours.
So we proceed to the next center, hoping it wouldn’t be to busy and that it would still be open by time we got there. We got there and luckily there were only three people there ahead of me.
Finally, I got admitted into a room and checked out by the nurse. After the checks, she lets me know the doctor would be in shortly.
Now, I know how this part of the game works.
You wait for the doctor because you’re thinking he is dealing with other sick men, women and children. You believe you’ll be attended to soon, but that never proves to be the case. That’s why I was not surprised that I waited a good 40 minutes in the room, while my father got in a good nap.
Finally the doctor came in and started his whole routine with me.
The whole time with the doctor lasted only about 15 minutes, which was not even a third of the time I spent waiting to be treated. Luckily he did prescribe me some medicine that would aid me in my recovery.
The problem was the medicine happened to be brand name as I found out when I attempted to get it filled at the local pharmacy. Some brand name prescriptions are not covered by my insurance so I had to pay the full amount for the expensive drugs.
Finally feeling a bit better, I can’t believe what I had gone through for a little cold.
I could be overreacting and could have been my own enemy by not going to the doctor sooner, but either way I think the way the American health care system is set up in such a way that people are expected to deal with it because they have no choice.
We are made to believe that people can’t get sick on the weekends because they won’t be able to see their own doctors. You have to sit and wait long periods of time to be treated and then you have to fight for a time that the doctor can see you on their schedule.
On top of that, you get medications that are expensive to purchase and sometimes not covered by insurance. Plus the hassle of having to pay big insurance premiums to large corporations for policies that won’t cover certain medical procedures, medicines or plans because it is not in their budget.
It is just hard to believe that a country as great as the United States, does not have strong nationwide health care for its citizens.
As a young, sickly child, I thought America could always be there for me if I became ill or sick with their health care services. But after this recent illness, I’m not so sure anymore.
Galo Pesantes, a junior communications major, is sports editor of the Campus Times. He can be reached by e-mail at gpesantes@ulv.edu.
