C Diary: The things you might not know.

About medical cost, there are two general conceptions. One: your social security (in urban) can cover about 90% fee. Two: Sometimes how long you could live depends on how much money you have. They are paradox, but both are relatively true. How could that be? Let me tell you my story.

I have been misdiagnosed for three whole months. My cancer has already spread, and I have multiple tumors. In such condition, we naturally want to be treated in the best hospital we could find. Huaxi hospital, with its advanced instruments and excellent staffs, is the best hospital in Sichuan, probably even the best in South West China. But you need to know two things about Huaxi before you go there.

First, it is extremely over-crowded, which means there you need to wait for a long time for almost everything.  Even it opens green channel for all cancer patients. Recently there was a case against Huaxi hospital. A liver cancer patient, non-resident, wanted to have radiation treatment in Huaxi. He made the appointment, signed the paper, paid the bill and then was told to come home, waiting for the further notice. His family rented an apartment nearby and waited and waited. Three months later, the patient died. The call never came. His family sued the hospital but can never win the case. The paper they signed almost free Huaxi from everything. And you can’t say it’s Huaxi’s fault. Too many patients, limited resources and hands. Of course, if you have money and social network, it’s another story.

Second, it’s expensive. All the tests you have gone through must be done in outpatient department because their beds are extremely limited. Unfortunately, your social security only covers your hospitalization fee. I have one commercial insurance, which can cover my outpatient expenses 7 days prior to hospitalization. It took me two weeks to go through all the tests. Still this insurance relieves me of some burden.

The first difficult personal decision I have to make is to choose chemo medicine. I got three choices: the Domestic, for which my social security can covers 90%; the Imported, for which my commercial insurance can help; the Self-paid, which is in the A1 recommendation list for breast cancers, the best one we probably can find, but we have to purchase it in a pharmacy shop, which means all the cost is totally on ourselves. If things go well, I probably need to go through 8 chemo treatments, which makes around 100000 RMB in total.

And that is just the beginning. Sometimes, money can buy your life.