When it comes to seeing the doctor, there are two choices,to go government or go private. While most companies have health benefits, self employed people like me are vulnerable to unexpected cost due to health problems. What I mean is health problems which are not urgent but requires you to see a specialist. The ironic thing is most insurance and takaful plans do not cover out patient visits to the hospital including visits to the specialists. So, unless you are admitted into the hospital overnight, you are on your own.

Another option Would be to go to government hospitals which are very cheap. However, everyone knows that the first time you go to the government hospital is to make an appointment which is most likely to be after 2 months.

My case in question is a skin allergy i developed which required me to se a specialist. I made an appointment with a skin specialist at KPJ Ampang Puteri in Ampang about a month ago and yesterday was my second appointment with her. The first time was a surprise when I was slapped with a bill of about RM 300. But yesterday’s bill was even more surprising with a whooping RM336. And as if the types medicine was not  diverse enough the first time around, the second visit displayed an even more interesting array of medication as shown below:

Telfast – taken twice a day for flu and allergey

Prednisolone – For the inflammation due to my skin problem. 3 stages of dosage, 3, 2 and 1 pill(s) per day

Skin Cream to be rubbed twice a day onto the inflammation on the skin

The most bad ass pill of them all. Diflucan. Made by the creators of Viagra. 1 pill per box, how bad ass is that? Not sure what its particularly for but it’s to be taken only once a week.

Bottomline

The bottom line is, if you are self employed, try your best not to get sick. It’s ok if you are involved in a near fatal accident because you have insurance, but don’t get sick because you have to pay for it yourself.

But if you do get sick try clinics first, they are cheaper. But if you need to meet a specialist…. I just hope you have a relative that is a specialist doctor.

But jokes aside, I think the pricing of the medication in hospitals are set on the assumption that everyone has medical benefits from their company and therefore they try to milk every penny from the “transaction”. Well, that’s not the case for everyone.

Suggestion

One suggestion I can think of is if you have a relative working in a hospital, you might be able to benefit from certain privileges offered to hospital staff such as staff price for medication.

For example, if I look back on my bill, the consultation fee for the specialist at KPJ Ampang Putri is only RM60, which is acceptable for me, but the medication price totalled Rm 271.46 which is ridiculous. But since my sister works at Prince Court Medical Centre and therefore can get staff price for medication, I might be able to get a better deal from Prince Court Medical Centre although their consultation fee is RM90. However this is just a hypothesis and not proven yet, so I just have to test this theory the next time around. It will be well worth it if I can save RM100 from the original bill.

Lastly, I’ll leave you with a piece of advice, stay healthy!

iMyn