Experienced my second encounter with the US health care system today.

Anyone who says the American system is better because you get better access to health care is only talking about people who have expensive - and thus comprehensive - medical insurance.

When we arrived last year, we discovered the children needed physicals before they would be admitted to the school - unfortunately this was something we couldn't really prepare for before leaving home, since we had no idea what town/city we'd end up in...so, I was stuck scrambling to get physicals. I located an office in Arlington, which is two towns away, who were taking new patients and were willing to take cash - I made the appointments and prepared to shell out a lot of money. Arlington is a very, very nice town -in fact, I wish I could afford to live there. Their library is a gorgeous, old, but very well maintained, classic kind of marble and stone edifice that's a delight to wander around in, and the rest of the town matches it.

It was a very nice office - helpful staff, understanding about our situation - in fact, when we got there, the receptionist indicated that they had billed the Canadian health care system (in other provinces) before for physicals, and they would try to bill half the cost back to Alberta Health. Yeah! Now the physicals would only cost $200! We went more than once, since we were squeezing the girls in one at a time on a tight timetable before school started, and each time, it was a pleasant experience (except of course for the payment).

This year, Sandy needed her physical updated for school sports, so I made appointments for all three again. This time we were on the plan offered through Dwayne's school. Although the individual coverage offered by both schools cost the same, my school offered spouse/dependent coverage at twice the rate of BU. So, naturally we're on his plan. We got bounced around a bit from health care center to health care center until they found a family provider who was taking new patients. She works in South Boston, a neighborhood I had heard much about, but had never entered before. Aside from getting lost trying to find the place (since it's right next to the Big Dig), I was glad it was daylight. Double-parked, finger waving drivers seem to congregate in this area, and I suspect that all the crazy drivers I've seen elsewhere, actually start out here at the beginning of their day - as if they were part of some kind of crazy dispatch system that assigned each one to a different sector to mess up traffic - "your assignment today is to go into east waltham and make u-turns in the middle of busy streets all day" or "cruise up and down memorial drive in cambridge at erratic speeds that are always at least 10 miles over or under the speed limit". [And yeah, its kinda neat that memorial drive runs along much of the charles on the north side - feels a bit like home.]

So, we finally find this place (and a place to park - I thanked god my car is old and worth very little right then), and although the building itself was nice, the reception staff exhibited the kind of guarded hostility that develops when you are used to dealing with unreasonable people...especially people who don't want to pay money. I know what that feeling is like, and it makes you less friendly, more suspect, and really detracts from the ability to make someone feel welcome in a place of business. I felt like the receptionist was feeling me out for my attitude when I first approached her and that I had to demonstrate that I was a nice person before she really started to work with me on getting the preliminaries done. On top of that, we spent almost an hour sorting out paperwork, making sure we were on the right plan, and making yet more phone calls to confirm that we did have coverage for the services we were about to receive.

Nothing like - here's my AHC card - here's my next of kin - the doctor will see you in a moment.

Although our physician is nice and seems quite competent, the forty-five minute drive (god knows how long it would take on the T!) and neighborhood really detract from the overall experience, and I sincerely hope we never have to access emergency medical services in this city. I suppose if something serious ever happens, I might see the benefits of this system by being able to access health care quicker, but so far, I'm not impressed.