Allergy and the health clinic

When walking on the street in Taipei, I started sneezing and my nose was running. Here came my old allergy problem! The weather was mild and it was nice to walk around. But when I dragged my wheel case along on the street, I wished the sidewalk to be more evenly paved.

I went to see a family doctor for my running nose at day 3 here. The clinic was 10 mins away from my aunt's place by walk. No prior appointment required. All I did was dropping in, filling out a form, and giving the nurse my insurance card. The whole visit took me less than 30 minutes including the waiting time. I got some immediate treatment inside my nose and walked out of the door with my prescribed medication. The total cost for this visit was 200NT dollars (6 USD).

Everyone in Taiwan (including foreigners with legal visa) receives the public health insurance, with which you pay about 20 US dollars per month and all your medical bills are covered with very little co-pay per treatment.

The down side of this free medicare is that I think the doctor over prescribed. Since the government pays for everything, I got four different types of pills for my running nose...