By Amanda Purnell
I exit the dermatologist’s office, stunned. Clutching my prescription in hand, I am shocked by the price of my walk-in appointment. Thirty-four hundred won. Roughly three U.S. dollars? That is it?! How can this be?
Having an E-2 visa in Korea comes with perks. For us Americans, namely, it is health insurance and cheap healthcare, not to have to make appointments weeks or months in advance. Not to have to turn down procedures you simply cannot afford. Not to have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars out of your pocket, even if we do have health insurance.
These are the things that Americans are experiencing for the first time. It is such a relief to know that I can afford going to the doctor and paying my phone bill in the same month. According to the World Health Organization, the United States spends about 15 percent of its GDP on healthcare, while Korea spends a modest 6.3 percent.
Koreans and expatriates in Korea can basically go to any doctor at any time. They only need their citizenship and alien number to receive quality and best of all, affordable, healthcare and prescriptions.
During my vacation in America last February, my bicycle decided to throw me over its handlebars and into a stop sign.
My first thought was that I did not have health insurance. As the ambulance sirens wailed, I wailed even louder with fear at the price of an ambulance ride. How much if I take the ambulance back to the hospital? $800-1,000 (850,000-1,050,000 won). Instead, with my skull showing a huge gash, I took a taxi to the nearest hospital where I also refused to get a head CT scan. It would take me years to pay off a CT scan. I was in pain. I was embarrassed. I was worried.
Then, I got angry. Mostly angry when I got my doctor’s bill from the Emergency Room. Seven stitches, 15 minutes of his time, and a few bandages cost me roughly $1,000. Let me repeat, $1,000. It is no wonder why the American Journal of Medicine stated that medical bills are a major factor in more than 60 percent of the personal bankruptcies in the United States.
As I ventured back to the Land of the Morning Calm, I walked into the surgeon’s office across the street from my school on my lunch hour and promptly got my stitches taken out for 15,000 won.
I have been in Korea almost a year and a half, and it never ceases to amaze me how quick, efficient and cheap the Korean medical system is. Long gone are the days of dragging my Korean co-teacher to doctor’s visits. Some quick Internet searching will always come up with lists of designated English-speaking medical service providers. Living in Suseong-gu in Daegu affords me the opportunity to be literally down the street from just about any English-speaking medical discipline I could need.
So I go. I go to the general physicians. I go to the ophthalmologists. I go to the dermatologists. I go to the Oriental medicine doctors. I’ve received a spinal CT, MRI and physical therapy for a spinal injury I received in Portugal two years ago. It had been left untreated because I simply could not afford to get it taken care of in America. My co-teachers must assume that I’m a hypochondriac with my weekly or bi-weekly appointments with various doctors or clinics.
Do I feel guilty about taking advantage of Korean health insurance? Sometimes I feel like I'm using Korea. But I remind myself that I pay my premium every month just like any other Korean citizen.
Korea has given me so many amazing opportunities, one of those being the opportunity to afford quality healthcare for the first time in my life. The sad part is that, even though I’m from one of the most powerful nations in the world, I had to move half-way around the world to receive it.
The writer is currently in her second year of teaching middle school with EPIK. Her blog, Korea, Kimchi & K-Pop web address is https://amandankorea.tumblr.com.