Is anyone out there familiar with healthcare in France? If you were to need a doctor's assistance, do you follow the same steps as in the USA? Are the medical charges similar to the US?
Posted by
Freedonia
16292 posts
If you should need a doctor, the two suggested ways of getting one are:
1) Ask your hotel. Most hotels will have the names and numbers of doctors on call.
2)Call the American consulate. They will have a list of English speaking doctors.
As many of us suggest, check with your health insurance company to see if you're covered there. If not, you may want to look into medical coverage to cover your trip including emergency evacuation. It's not very expensive.
Posted by
Virginia, USA
5850 posts
The blog entry below was written by an American Expat living in France. It has some good information on the healthcare in France.
http://www.davidlebovitz.com/archives/2009/10/health_care_tips_for_travelers_t.html
Posted by
Portland
3643 posts
To answer your last question, there's an eyeopener of an article by Sara Paretsky (the mystery writer) in the New York Times Sunday magazine, sometime within the past year. You could find it at your local public library or by googling, I should think. The substance, for any naysayers out there who oppose national health insurance, is that for 10 hours in the ER with multiple tests to ascertain whether or not her husband was having a heart attack, they were charged $200. The doctor apologized for having to charge that much. I have excellent coverage through Kaiser, an HMO; and my co-pay for ER services is $200! I can't imagine what it would cost a foreigner to walk into an ER here and be thoroughly checked out for a suspected heart attack. Still, Steve, I advocate getting at least medical evacuation insurance. You can see all the reasons in many older posts.