Thrifty Vaga

Today I had my first experience with socialized medicine.

In Ciudad Real the weather changes with the sun. If the sun is up it's HOT. It's so hot that my iPod gets really warm in my jean pocket and my Ray Bans start to burn my face! but once the sun goes down "hace frío" or it gets cold.

Anyways, everyone in the town is sick. I've been coughing for about a week but today I felt dizzy in class and decided it was time to go to the doctor in Spain. I avoided this last time I was here because I didn't have A CLUE how the process worked and 'would they accept my insurance?' haha. but my amazing Spanish roomie, Carmen, said she would go with me and there wouldn't be any problems. Her dad is a doctor in pueblos, or really small villages, so I trusted in her knowledge of the whole Spanish med system.

We went to the city's center to a urgent care type clinic. I just gave them my passport, they typed my info and we sat down in the waiting area of about 20 seats. The room was surrounded by 8 small examination rooms with their number on the door. There was no nurse calling out names but Carmen asked who was last and we waited until they were seen and then the doc said next and I was in. It took about 15-20 min of waiting. It was very similar to any doc-in-a-box clinic that doesn't have detailed history of their patients. After the explaining the my symptoms, any allergies, and an examine. The doctor said I have bronchitis and wrote the a script for some antibiotics. Then Carmen and I walked down the street to a pharmacy, told them what I needed and paid 6€ and my cough is finally dying down now!

I'm no expert on health care nor economics but my first experience was a good one with one country's socialized medicine.