My 1st experience with Argentine Health Care

So it figures that the one weekend Paula goes away to visit her family, my shoes cut my left ankle enough to make it swell up. Without a cell phone, it was very difficult and frustrating trying to get in contact with any of my friends or professors here. After living in Argentina for two weeks, I am more confident about my castellano skills, but I still did not want to venture my first experience with Argentine health care alone.

Thankfully, Profesora Graciela was online and saw my plea for help in her in-box this morning. She and her two children, Maggie (3) and Nacho (6), accompanied me to the private clinic near her home. Argentina has a system of private clinics for the people who have health insurance as well as a public hospital system that provides free health care to people without health insurance. Both private clinics and free public hospitals provide quality health care, but one usually has to wait a very long time for a consultation at the public hospitals. As an American, I was nervous about going to a private clinic, especially when I realized that the health insurance Fulbright gave me only applies automatically to clinics in Buenos Aires. Everywhere else in Argentina, i.e. Parana, I have to pay up-front in full and then apply for a re-imbursement later. I was expecting my bill at the private clinic to be at least a couple of hundred pesos. To my surprise, a consulation at a private clinic only costs 40 pesos ( $10 )!!

The doctor, who did not wear gloves to examine me (!!), said that my ankle was only inflamed from the humidity and that the cuts were not infected. He prescribed me a pain reliever and told me to take it easy and not walk on it for the next couple of days. The pain reliever was only $2.5, and, when I picked it up at the Pharmacy, it did not come wth any instructions or packaging, just the foil strip of 10 pills. Even though a trip to the doctor is never a good thing, I am glad that I was able to experience the health care system here through a sort of trial run for something very minor. Now, in case something serious happens, I know where to go and how much cash to bring. Clinics here only accept cash. Also, fortunately, in case of an extreme emergency, once I move into my new apartment on Monday, I will be living right across the street from the San Martin Public Hospital.