A word to the wise about going to the doctor on Oceania Riviera

While I agree with much of your argument, you might best check out the quality of health care in Cuba vs that of the U.S. You''ll find more Dr.'s per capita, a lower cost per capita and arguably better results based of life expectancy and child mortality rates. Some of the leading Dr's in fields such as Cancer Care, Heart Disease, Neo Natal care are Cuban trained.

 

The point being that your argument looses much of it's effectiveness when you provide opinions instead of facts.

 

An interesting link:https://www.huffingtonpost.com/blake-fleetwood/cuba-has-better-medical-c_b_19664.html

I'll add to your comments: Cuba doctors are so highly regarded world wide, that countries with doctor shortages hire teams of Cuban-trained doctors and other medical personnel.

The International Journal of Health Services published a paper stating that "Since the early 1960s, 28,422 Cuban health workers have worked in 37 Latin American countries, 31,181 in 33 African countries, and 7,986 in 24 Asian countries. Throughout a period of four decades, Cuba sent 67,000 health workers to structural cooperation programs, usually for at least two years, in 94 countries ... an average of 3,350 health workers working abroad every year between 1960 and 2000."

I think you've successfully diagnosed a raging case of Americanitis.

 

What I struggle to figure out is why ordinary Americans tolerate their health care system. For the amount of $$$ thrown at it, results are pretty mediocre (especially in the categories you mention... life expectancy, cancer...). Patriotism I guess.

 

What I really can't figure out is why anyone would want to come on the Internet and argue in favour of propagating this broken system of "charge as much as you possibly can" onto a cruise ship.

We "tolerate" the broken system because that's what we have. Should we go to Cuba for medical treatment? Our option is to receive treatment from doctors who were educated in India or Asia. Patriotism has nothing to do with it.

China Addict complains that they did not know the cost of the medications until the next day so they were unable to protest the cost. While I agree that the medical staff should have been able to answer your questions about cost at the time of treatment, do you really think that your protests would have changed the cost? Would you not take the medicine because of the cost? Not me.

On a recent NCL cruise, my wife needed medical treatment over two days including intravenous antibiotics. The doctors and medical staff treated us with professionalism, care and kindness. They also told us the full cost in advance and explained that they do not take insurance and we would need to pay the bill of about $3,800. As others have said, that's one of the many reasons we buy travel insurance. The cost of the insurance for this cruise was only about $150, and after coordination with my regular health insurance, all we paid was a $50 deductible. Like most insurance, you only have to use it once for it to more than pay for itself. I can probably cruise for the rest of my life, continue buying travel insurance, and still be ahead financially.

Dr visit and diagnosis of DVT was under $200 on MSC last year, clearly Oceana follows a very different model.

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My son had several visits to the doctor, a minor surgical procedure under sedation and a course of antibiotics on P&O, all for about £500.

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Speaking from personal experience and conversations with others, Oceania's medical visits / procedures / medications are notoriously expensive ... especially when compared to other cruise lines.