I survived my first trip to the doctor last week.

I have to take regular medication. In the UK, visits to the doc are free, and if like me you have a ‘chronic condition’ then prescription medication is also free. The great thing about that situation is that you also get free prescriptions for ailments not related to your chronic one – maybe you fancy a nice wig? Free. Ok, you do need the doctor’s approval.

I digress. Of course, in the USA, visits to the doc aren’t gratis and medication isn’t handed out like free candy. No, you gotsta pay. Until we sort out our health insurance situation, we have to bite the bullet and pay all our own healthcare bills. As my medication bought over from the UK was running low, we could no longer put it off – the O.C.E had to find a doctor.

So, Jennifer did some investigation and we picked out Dr Tim Schmidt who practices at the St. Joseph Heritage Medical Group. An appointment was made and we headed down there on the day. After a bit of getting lost at the center (it has numerous doctors working from there plus other facilities) and doing the necessary paperwork, we found our way to Dr Schmidt’s waiting room. From then on it was pretty familiar experience to going to the doctor in the UK. I was ushered to a little examination room and prodded a bit by the nurse, then the doctor came in and we got down to business. I found it quite quaint that he wore a white coat – it’s been pointed out to me subsequently that “of course they do”. It’s obviously the norm here, but not something I’ve seen in the UK for years. Since I was about six years old, as it happens.

Anyway, Dr Schmidt is a very nice chap and we chatted about this and that (mostly health stuff, of course). I gave him all the information I had about my health including the very helpful full blood analysis done by the life insurance company (that saved us an expensive trip to the lab).

I was impressed when he issued my prescription and zapped it over to the Walgreen’s pharmacy down the road from our house. Soon we were all done and we made our escape from the office.

Later that day I wandered over to the pharmacy to collect my medication. My jaw hit the floor when it came to over $40! I know for a fact that in the UK, my levothyroxine costs the NHS not much more than a pound for a month’s supply. Hmmm. Bit of a markup there, I think. After returning from the pharmacy with my tail between my legs I did some research and found that Target will do my medication for $10 for 90 days’ supply. That’s more like it. Bless you, Target.

However, the biggest worry was what the size of the doctor’s bill was going to be. I’d heard nasty stories about a trip to the doc costing the equivalent of the debt of a small African nation. Yesterday the bill hit the mat and I opened it gingerly. Given that I was expecting a couple of hundred, it was relief to to find out it was ‘only’ $69.

However, still a bit more than what I was used to.