Health Care in Argentina

Considering all the current election talk of health care reform in the United States I thought I would take some time to talk about health care in Argentina. Health care here is free, unless you need a highly specialized treatment or want to pay for private health care. Free health care sounds great on paper but it comes with its own costs. I started thinking about this the other day after the following incident on the trip...

Marieke and I were talking about the trip during the ride back to Rio Gallegos when I looked up and noticed that the women in the seat in-front of me had a blood pressure cuff on her arm and that one of the nurse passengers was listening to her heart beat with a stethoscope. I nudged Marieke and asked her what was going on. The next thing I noticed was that the nurse had a giant syringe in his hand. At this point the bus had pulled over and stopped on the side of the road. The nurse turned to me and asked me to wake Marta (the other nurse who I talked about in the previous post). Fearing that the lady in-front of me was very sick I tapped Marta on the shoulder to wake her. She woke up startled, looked around, and went back to sleep. The others called her name and finally she re-awoke. She then noticed what was going on, let out an annoyed sigh, rolled her eyes, cracked her knuckles, and got up. She checked the blood pressure of the women and then pulled out another syringe and gave her a shot. She returned to her seat where she covered her head with a coat and went back to sleep. The woman also went to sleep and everything went on as normal. At this point I was very curious as to what had happened. I assumed that the women was diabetic.

When we stopped to cross into Chile I asked Angel what was wrong with the women. He replied non-chalantly, "she had heart burn."

Going to the doctor here is liking going to the grocery store. My host dad has a blood pressure cuff and when we were in the north he checked the blood pressure of his entire extended family. Then, to be sure that it was correct, we all loaded into his pickup and drove to the emergency room where they took everyone's blood pressure. They couldn't figure out why I was so amused.

A couple weeks ago my host dad had a stomach ache. They called the doctor who came to the house with a nurse and gave him a shot.

The attitude towards making a trip to the doctor is so passive here that my host mom actually suggested that I take a trip to the hospital to see the renovations.

This attitude also extends to all specialties of medicine. I read in a New York Times essay that something like 1/3 of children in Buenos Aires go to see a psychologist on a regular basis, and it's not because they're crazy.

I can't say this hasn't worn off on me. I have a bad sunburn on my nose and might just make a trip to the dermatoligist after I buy a newspaper...