By arosema93
Well I’ve had quite an interesting last week, and not in a good way. It involved an aspect of my host country that most exchanges never experience or know much about: healthcare. And no, I’m not talking about politics here. While most exchange students go through their time without any medical glitches, I knew I had one coming eventually. I think the last time I went more than a year between hospital visits was when I was ten, and considering I am here for a year, something was bound to happen. I made it a grand total of 9 months this time. Basically, I fell on my hand and the next day it was super swollen and painful. By the time I decided it was worth getting checked out, it was after 5 on Friday and due to a public holiday on Monday the earliest time I would be able to see a doctor would be Tuesday at least. So it was off to emergency at the hospital we went.
From there I am going to skip over the majority of the story as it is mostly full of frustration and futility as I try to get one of the many worthless doctors to at least act like they know what they are doing. Long story short, I am currently writing this (very slowly with one hand) one week after the injury and I still have no idea if anything is wrong with my hand or not, despite already spending 10 hours in hospitals and doctors’ offices mostly waiting around. Many of the doctors here seem to be incompetent at the least and the system as a whole is full of bureaucracy and impossible to negotiate. Hopefully soon I will figure out what is wrong, but I am starting to lack quite a bit of faith in the Australian health care. Of this is anything like what our system will be under Obamacare then Obama will probably be remembered as the worst president ever. But it’s hard to picture America’s system ever being this bad. The only upside is that it is free* (when you pay $600 a year as an international student to buy into the system). However, although our overseas student health coverage gets us basically everything free, it also means having to initially pay quite a bit upfront and then spend several weeks trying to work through the bureaucracy enough to get a refund through insurance. My lasting piece of advice is this: If you go to another country, just don’t get hurt. Actually though, just don’t do it. It’s a waste of time, money, and frustration, and you never know exactly how the system will end up working out. Upon coming to Australia I was never too scared of the millions upon billions of poisonous snakes and spiders due to the knowledge that there are antidotes for all bites available at every hospital and this is a first world country after all, they should be able to take care of you. Now I am much more confident that I would end up dying during my fifth hour spent in the emergency waiting room.
Don’t take this the wrong way. Don’t think I now hate Australia or anything or that I’m saying don’t go abroad. All I’m saying is stay safe, especially when you don’t know the system. I would write about something else at this point, but that has literally been my life for the last week. Oh, and don’t expect this to change anything…I’ll still do just as much crazy and dangerous stuff as I always have :)