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Dawn over here got me thinking about it with her post and reminded me of just how lucky we are living in Canada.
I have always appreciated the fact that we in Canada have universal health care...Just as I appreciate the fact that I live in the province that started the whole trend. After my mother's lengthy fight against cancer, that appreciation was even more so due to the fact that we did not have to worry about health care costs while spending the last days with Mom.
But sometimes, you take those things for granted and tend to let the appreciation slide by the wayside and you have to be reminded about just how lucky you are - thanks Dawn for the reminder!!!
Yesterday, Squirt twisted his ankle. It started to swell almost immediately and I was concerned that there was more damage than just a twisted ankle. I called his doctor who said that he would likely just send him straight to the ER and the hospital for xrays anyways so he suggested we just head straight there.
Cost of the phone call to talk to the doctor about this matter? Nothing.
So I loaded up Squirt and off to the hospital ER we went. We were promptly met by a nurse at the door who immediately retrieved a wheelchair for me to place wimpering little man in. Then she immediately wheeled him into an examination room.
Total time from door to examination room: possibly 2 minutes.
She called for the doctor and while we waited we began to fill out the necessary forms. I was in the process of retrieving Squirt's Health Services Card from my purse when the doctor walked in.
Total wait for the doctor: 10 minutes at the most.
She examined his ankle and announced that she was pretty certain nothing was broken (which immediately calmed my crying child - bonus!!!) but she wanted to make sure there wasn't any hairline fractures so she called down to xray and asked if we could get him in there still.
Yup.
No problem.
The nurse wheeled Squirt to the elevator and I followed along as the two of them chatted - about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by the way - and she left us with our forms by the xray room. It was a very short time later that a young gentleman came out, wheeled us into the room and proceeded to take xrays.
Total wait time from getting to the room until the technician started to take the xrays: 15 minutes maximum.
After that, we were wheeled back upstairs and I sat in the examine room again as we waited for the results.
Wait time: we might have waited 10 minutes tops. I wasn't really keeping track by this time simply because Squirt was feeling much better and was complaining about having to wait "forever" and having forgotten his DS in the truck. Yeah...Put on your big boy underwear and deal with it...such is life, dear child of mine...
The doctor came in, announced that there were no breaks, no fractures and proceeded to wrap his ankle in a tensor bandage.
Cost of bandage: nothing. They felt sorry for me because I happened to have no money on me. Usually it would cost $ 4.50 the receptionist winked when she told me. (I am going to go back there and pay them for it...I just didn't have cash on my yesterday and Hubby needed my truck today as his employees had the van at another site...)
Total cost out of pocket for yesterday's adventure: 0...Zero...Zip...Nada...
Well, there was the $1 that I had to stick in the parking meter, which also happened to be all the money I had in my purse at the time - but we won't include that in health care costs.
And we got home before Hubby and we still had supper before 6 in the evening.
I have always appreciated the fact that we in Canada have universal health care...Just as I appreciate the fact that I live in the province that started the whole trend. After my mother's lengthy fight against cancer, that appreciation was even more so due to the fact that we did not have to worry about health care costs while spending the last days with Mom.
But sometimes, you take those things for granted and tend to let the appreciation slide by the wayside and you have to be reminded about just how lucky you are - thanks Dawn for the reminder!!!
Yesterday, Squirt twisted his ankle. It started to swell almost immediately and I was concerned that there was more damage than just a twisted ankle. I called his doctor who said that he would likely just send him straight to the ER and the hospital for xrays anyways so he suggested we just head straight there.
Cost of the phone call to talk to the doctor about this matter? Nothing.
So I loaded up Squirt and off to the hospital ER we went. We were promptly met by a nurse at the door who immediately retrieved a wheelchair for me to place wimpering little man in. Then she immediately wheeled him into an examination room.
Total time from door to examination room: possibly 2 minutes.
She called for the doctor and while we waited we began to fill out the necessary forms. I was in the process of retrieving Squirt's Health Services Card from my purse when the doctor walked in.
Total wait for the doctor: 10 minutes at the most.
She examined his ankle and announced that she was pretty certain nothing was broken (which immediately calmed my crying child - bonus!!!) but she wanted to make sure there wasn't any hairline fractures so she called down to xray and asked if we could get him in there still.
Yup.
No problem.
The nurse wheeled Squirt to the elevator and I followed along as the two of them chatted - about Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, by the way - and she left us with our forms by the xray room. It was a very short time later that a young gentleman came out, wheeled us into the room and proceeded to take xrays.
Total wait time from getting to the room until the technician started to take the xrays: 15 minutes maximum.
After that, we were wheeled back upstairs and I sat in the examine room again as we waited for the results.
Wait time: we might have waited 10 minutes tops. I wasn't really keeping track by this time simply because Squirt was feeling much better and was complaining about having to wait "forever" and having forgotten his DS in the truck. Yeah...
The doctor came in, announced that there were no breaks, no fractures and proceeded to wrap his ankle in a tensor bandage.
Cost of bandage: nothing. They felt sorry for me because I happened to have no money on me. Usually it would cost $ 4.50 the receptionist winked when she told me. (I am going to go back there and pay them for it...I just didn't have cash on my yesterday and Hubby needed my truck today as his employees had the van at another site...)
Total cost out of pocket for yesterday's adventure: 0...Zero...Zip...Nada...
Well, there was the $1 that I had to stick in the parking meter, which also happened to be all the money I had in my purse at the time - but we won't include that in health care costs.
And we got home before Hubby and we still had supper before 6 in the evening.
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