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My Beautiful View of Taiwan – From a Hospital Bed

I found it a tad ironic the first story that popped up on my Flipboard App for my iPhone was that of the American governmental shutdown due to fear of a national healthcare system.

You may be asking yourself, “What’s so ironic about that?” If so, that’s a great question, and if not, I’m going to tell you anyway.

The Beginning

After working all day Friday and hitting the gym with a co-worker, I finally gave in to many requests to join other co-workers for late-night basketball. I’m not THAT old and in OK shape, and although I haven’t touched a basketball in about a decade, I thought the extra exercise would be good. What horrible logic. I would have been much better off going out and power chugging Taiwan Beer with university students until 5 a.m.

Long story short, plenty of botched layups and bricked jumpers later my feet got tangled in a mess of others all fighting for a rebound. I hit the ground, hip first and hard. I’m 36, not 63, but that much force focused onto one tiny little bone surface usually means you lose, and I did.

The Middle

I am going to keep this brief for the simple reason that I hurt, and when I hurt I have the attention span of someone with A.D.D. that’s high on Walter White’s blue meth. The following day I made the dreaded trip to the emergency room because I was pretty certain the fact that my left leg didn’t want to work was a sign of a serious injury and not a bruise. After a very short wait at a local hospital I was taken to Radiology and whisked over to see a doctor. It took him all of about 30 seconds to spot that I had a femoral neck fracture. WTF? I’m only 36!

The End

Here’s where things get interesting and focus back on Taiwan. They scheduled me for hip pinning surgery…THAT DAY. Seriously, I had an OR lined up about 5 hours after arriving at the ER.

If I was in America, I may not have even seen a single doctor by that point, and there I was with a team of surgeons around me. As an American, I always heard that national health care meant long waits and poor service. This surely wasn’t a long wait and the service was extremely attentive and efficient. Even better was the price tag.

The bill consisted of these items:

  • ER Service
  • surgery
  • 4 nights in the hospital
  • upgraded room charge (I paid more for a nicer room)
  • standard Medicine
  • upgraded oral medication (My kind wife opted-in for better quality meds, named instead of generic perhaps)
  • upgraded pain control IV (Morphine by the click)
  • all bandages and other medical supplies

What was the financial damage of all of this? Surely it’s going to cause years and years of paperwork and insurance filings and maybe even lawyer fees to sort out. I can’t believe I am stuck in this national healthcare system. The bottom line –

~$475 USD

What?!?!?!? Only $475 bucks? Would that even take care of an ER visit in Philly? This is basically standard for anyone living and working in Taiwan. I am actually even going to get a reimbursement for about $300 of that due to the fact I have extra supplemental insurance as well, but even if you don’t you can surely see how dangerous and awful NHI is (*confused face*).

I apologize about ending this with a political dig, but I want to personally thank Ted Cruz, John Fleming, Mike Lee and all the rest for giving me plenty of reasons to stay in Taiwan, make good money, and live a good life.

I don’t like fracturing my hip, but I do like having it cared for quickly, cheaply and well. I’ll be out of work for awhile as this heals, and it looks like Cruz and friends will too. If any readers bump into one them on the street, tell them to give me a shout if they want to sit down and have a chat about healthcare over a glass of milk.

Filed Under: Living Abroad Tagged With: Taiwan

Comments

  1. Dave in Taipei says

    October 3, 2013 at 1:53 am

    Hey Tim, sorry to hear about your accident. Hope you get better quickly.

    I have had 2 similar experiences with the Taiwan Healthcare system and can only praise the efficiency and cost effectiveness of it.

    First experience:

    About 4 months ago I had a surfing accident at Toucheng and basically went over the front of my board and hit the bottom hard with my considerable body weight plus the wave on top of me. All that downward energy focused on my shoulder. I hit hard and it hurt. Even though I was in considerable pain, I was thinking I could have easily hit my neck and been paralyzed. The impact on my shoulder crushed my ribs and I had real trouble getting up and out of the water.

    I went to hospital as soon as I got back to Taipei convinced that I had at least a couple of broken ribs. I went to the ER of Tri Services Hospital in Neihu. Within 15 minutes I had been admitted and X-ray’d. 15 minutes later I got the results, no broken bones just severe bruising. In and out of Hospital in 30 minutes! Cost was $600NT (US$30) I am from Australia and if you go to an ER in Australia I think a typical wait before being seen is around 4-6 hours.

    Second Experience:

    My 3yo daughter recently started experiencing seizures out of the blue a few months ago. They started small and infrequent and quickly escalated to 25 seizures a day. I took her to Tri Services Hospital and they admitted her that day. They tried to get her in for an MRI same day but it was not available that day, had to wait till the next day.

    In total she was in hospital for 4 days. She had an MRI, MRA, blood tests, IVs, medications etc. etc The total cost out of pocket after NHI was just NT$192 !!! (Less than US$7) Even if we had zero insurance cover the total cost would have been NT15,000. (US$ 500). I had read somewhere that the cost of just an MRI in the States can vary between US$2,000 to 17,000.

    At first she was diagnosed with a rare brain problem that would require surgery. After doing the research I found that the best doctors for that type of surgery are at Children’s Hospital Boston. Given the serious nature of the initial diagnosis I was considering taking her to Boston for a 4-8 hour surgery and a one week stay in hospital. The cost of that was expected to be between US$ 100,000 and 250,000.
    For one week!

    We went and saw various specialists after the initial hospital stay and got different diagnosis’s. I have since taken my daughter to Taida Children’s Hospital (and continue to do so) and I feel confident that we are dealing with some of the best doctors in Taiwan. (And her problem is much better now under medication.)

    I think Australia could learn a lot from Taiwan’s Healthcare System. And the public transport system too. I’m sure America could also learn some things.

    Reply
    • Tim says

      October 3, 2013 at 9:36 am

      Hi Dave,

      First off, sorry to hear about your daughter’s heath troubles. I’m a father too, and I know how much the little ones mean to us. It’s good to hear that she is doing better.

      Also, thanks for reading this post. It sounds like Australia and the USA have similar problems. It’s also nice to know that you have had good experiences here with the doctors in Taiwan.

      If I was single without any dependents I could (maybe) convince myself to move home, but since I am a dad, and the healthcare here is so much better in basically every single way, I just can’t leave. The whole process of my daughters’ birth and all of her follow-ups was amazing. My wife got to choose the hospital and the doctor (for some reason a lot of the anit-universal/national healthcare touts in America claim this is impossible under an NHI program). She had almost a week of in-hospital post-birth care. I don’t think it was a full week, but it was much more than you get in the USA. And my daughter had her fair share of 1st year problems (small hole in her heart, possible intestinal issues, skull was growing slowly) that were handled extremely well.

      You’re spot on about public transport too.

      Thanks again for stopping by, reading, and commenting, and best of luck to you and your family.

      Reply
  2. Tabitha says

    October 5, 2013 at 6:43 am

    Hey Tim,

    So sorry to hear about your injury. But I am glad that you have received good healthcare and at that price. Mind blowing to say the least. Taiwan’s National Health Care was the icing on the cake when I was trying to decided on which east Asian country to teach English in. Thanks for this article, it will help to quiet some of my naysayers. Feel better soon.

    – Tabitha

    Reply
    • Tim says

      October 5, 2013 at 10:52 am

      Hey,

      Good to see you are still a reader Tabitha.

      I’ve said it in other posts too, but Taiwan’s NHI is one of the main reasons why I’m still here after 8 years. Don’t worry about the naysayers.

      Reply
      • Tabitha says

        October 8, 2013 at 3:39 am

        I plan to move to Taiwan June 2014 so I’ll definitely still be a advent reader until then and I’m sure even after I’m there!

        Reply
        • Tim says

          October 8, 2013 at 12:04 pm

          Good to hear Tabitha 🙂

          Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Quora says:
    April 5, 2015 at 5:37 am

    Why do people complain about the American medical system?

    Having experienced the health care systems of Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, honestly everything about the US is self-evidently broken beyond belief. FUBAR in the original cursing form. A common example of US “health care”: This $55,000 Bill Is The…

    Reply
  2. Getting Sick and Seeing the Doctor in Taiwan | Move to Taiwan says:
    July 11, 2015 at 1:23 pm

    […] I went to the ER when I seriously sprained my ankle and was seen by a nurse right away who took me to do x-rays, and then I was seen by a doctor about 30 minutes later. Most people I know who have had emergencies report pretty good care as well. Just look at Tim’s experience when he fractured his hip. […]

    Reply

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