American couple who used healthcare system in Spain shocked by $43 bill

5 months ago

An American couple who had to go to the doctor while on holiday in Spain were shocked when they came out with a $43 bill.

Todd and Melanie Maddex, 40 and 45, were holidaying in Valencia when Melanie fell ill.

After a week feeling under the weather with flu-like symptoms, Melanie decided to call a doctor.

Within two hours, Melanie had an appointment and picked up medication from the local pharmacy for the total sum of £34 ($43).

Transcript

00:00 (upbeat music)

00:02 So we're in Valencia, Spain, and my wife got sick,

00:08 and she'd been sick for like 10, 11 days.

00:10 She's not getting any better.

00:12 Just really, really bad cold and flu symptoms.

00:15 So finally I was like,

00:16 let's figure out this Spanish healthcare,

00:19 and let's see if we can get you antibiotics or something.

00:23 Within 20 minutes of deciding

00:25 that we really need to get a doctor,

00:27 she has her telemed appointment already scheduled,

00:29 and it's started.

00:30 The cost of this appointment is $29 with no insurance.

00:36 We don't pay taxes.

00:37 We don't have the benefit of free healthcare in Spain,

00:40 like a tax-paying citizen would have.

00:43 But $29 to see a doctor effectively,

00:47 or a telemed doctor.

00:48 She talks to the doctor in English,

00:51 easy, super easy to understand.

00:53 Explains what's going on.

00:55 They ask her some questions.

00:56 They say, okay, yeah,

00:58 it sounds like you need antibiotics.

01:00 They give her a prescription for antibiotics

01:03 and something else.

01:05 And the way they give us prescriptions

01:08 is they send an email that has a couple of QR codes on it.

01:11 And you take your phone to a pharmacy,

01:14 which they're on every corner.

01:16 There's pharmacies here.

01:18 And all you do is you walk in,

01:19 you show them the QR code,

01:21 the email with the QR codes.

01:23 They scan it, they turn around,

01:24 and then they hand you the prescription.

01:26 There's no name on it.

01:27 You don't wait.

01:28 There's no filling the prescription.

01:30 None of that exists.

01:32 Total cost for the antibiotics

01:33 and another medicine to make things run better,

01:38 was $11.

01:42 So our total cost,

01:44 two hours from, hey, I think we should go to the doctor,

01:47 medicine in hand, was $40.

01:50 $40.

01:51 And that's without insurance.

01:53 We're paying $1,000 a month for insurance,

01:55 and it would have cost us more than $40

01:57 just for our prescription.

01:59 Not to mention whatever our part of the copay was

02:02 for the doctor's appointment.

02:03 Not to mention however long it would take us

02:04 to get that appointment.

02:06 Man, they're doing something right here in Spain,

02:08 I'll tell you what.

02:09 [BLANK_AUDIO]

American couple who used healthcare system in Spain shocked by $43 bill

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