I’m European, with the benefits and problems of our public health system

Henna

I do not know very much about the US health care system but I suppose You mostly have private insurances.  That is not usual in Scandinavia. We have high taxes and quite a good public health care with small cost to the patient.  But our system has the problem of long queues even if the referral to the hospital is urgent.

But we have a private health care too. It is very expensive and people often use it first when they do not get help from the public health care in reasonable time.

My gynegologist expected that an urgent referral could take some days, she sent it in the beginning of June and I got time to a public hospital first in the beginning of July and when I called to the hospital, they told that this time was not meant for C&D, only planning, they could send a new call letter to C&D later. When I discussed with the nurse, she was very friendly but appealed to a shortage of personnel.

It seemed to me that my D&C in the public hospital might be some weeks later and the results of the biopsy could come even later. I could get completely mad when waiting.

So booked C&D in the end of June in a private hospital. I’m a bit concerned about the costs but it is not impossible if it’s only C&D and the biopsy.  I talked to my Occupational Health Physician yesterday and she said that it was a good solution, it’s worth to pay for a faster diagnosis and the peace of mind.

(The Occupational Health Care is our third system. It’s private and paid by the employer and it’s free to the patient, but only working people have it. It covers only the costs of the visits to the occupational health physician, not gynegologists, not operations. The benefit with the occupational health physicians is that they have time immediately and they are very nice and friendly. If they weren’t, the employer could prefer to change consultant, take another private medical center instead).

Henna