Things that are different so far, part 4

So today my husband and myself had our first doctor's appointment since arriving in the Netherlands. We called to set up an appointment last Wednesday and they offered us a time two days later but it was earlier than we wanted to get up so we opted for the next available time which was today. So far socialized medicine isn't causing us to have to wait to see a doctor. When we arrived at the doctor's office we each had a single page form to fill out since we are new patients and right on time the doctor walked out and asked us to come back to his office/ exam room.

Upon entering the room the first thing that struck me was how pricey some of the furniture in his office was. I used to sell high-end modern furniture and so I immediately recognized some chairs and other items from the German manufacturer Vitra. If you know Vitra's products then you can understand how obvious it was to me it was that this doctor is not hurting for money. So we spoke with the doctor for a while, told him about the medications I am on, he took a look inside my husband's ear because of an odd sensation he had been experiencing, wrote out a prescription for some ear drops, and the doctor explained that if we need a prescription we can simply send him an email and if it seems reasonable he will send the prescription to the pharmacist without us having to come in. I then made another appointment for 3 months later (I am a type 1 diabetic and so they want to check me out every 3 months) and we were back on our bikes headed home. The visit cost, for the two of us, a grand total of nothing except for the calories we burned cycling to the office and back.

The entire event was so efficient, so easy, so pleasant it made me wonder how the American health care system could have become so screwed up. We received the care and advice we needed, we were never rushed or hurried, we were able to ask all the questions we wanted, and we left knowing that any future care we need will be handled in the same efficient and effective way. In the US a doctor would never write even a simple prescription without seeing you first, because A. they don't want to be sued and B. they want to charge you or your insurance company for an office visit. Here it seems their top priority is simply to provide good health care.

The Dutch are a people known to enjoy complaining about things, but I have heard zero complaints about their health care system. Politicians in America complain about it, but that is because they are either misinformed or lying. Patients in America tend to not complain about the Dutch health care system as most are too busy complaining about the US health care system.