Germany cares

Germany medical care system is okay in my opinion. Rich or poor everyone get the same treatment. Although the tax in Germany is really high(almost half of your salary being deduct for tax and also medical insurance) but at least the money is not to waste.

As for my case Boon's medical insurance includes me, so i got my own medical card too^^. Once you got your medical card, it's important to find yourself a home doctor. For me a home doctor's criteria are simple:

1. Speaks English

2. Nearby or reachable by tram

3. Friendly

If you have any sickness, remember always go to your home doctor 1st(unless if u want to look for dentist that is different) because starting from your 1st visit to the doctor you are required to pay 10 Euro(which will be valid for 3 month of doctor visitations) *for only that particular clinic(so it's good to stick to only 1 home doctor. for example if you have a skin problem, 1st you'll have to go to your home doctor, and if that sickness is not his/ hers expertise he/she will write a letter to transfer you to other hospital or any skin specialist. So if your home doctor transfer you, for the following transfered hospital you don't have to pay additional fees. Also after 3 month if u don't go to the doctor you don't have to pay anything. This information is crucial.

Last week as i needed to find a doctor for my Thyrotoxic problem, we searched around, found 1 which is far away, we took 2 trams and walk for about 1km(luckily we didn't got lost) asking for direction here and there finally we reach. So as usual we pay 10 euro before we consult the doctor. Then i got to know that that doctor couldn't speaks English and it's a problem for me to communicated with him plus he asked me to come for 2 following days for blood test and also to get the result of the test(so i was like damn i had to travel so far again :S) We said yes yes but never came back. So from there we decided to find other doctor which is nearby, took out our map and we found one, a hospital near the town. We walk back to the tram station then change another bla bla bla and reach. Luckily the staff can speak English(hallelujah). So we pay another 10 Euro because i showed them that I've paid just now in another clinic but she said it's different(damn). Waited for like 1.5 hours finally we meet the doctor(or more like a trainee) she said i can do my blood test and also the result in 1 hour(great news), but she mention that this hospital only do emergency cases so it's good that in future i have my own home doctor.

Oh ya another thing is medicine. Their system is different from Malaysia. Here you need to get the doctor's note to get medicine but you can get it in any pharmacy which are convenient to you. Although we have our medical card it's not completely free, an additional 5 euro for each medicine you take(same price for all medicine i think). I needed 2 meds so i need to pay another 10 euro(again pokai liao la). So it's more worth it if you take long term meds in 1 visit( for example 3 months- 6 months) because it's still 5 Euro.

This lesson is really expensive :S but at least i know now!