luxe0780 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 3:36 pm
ALittleStitious wrote: ↑Fri Apr 02, 2021 6:37 am
luxe0780 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 01, 2021 8:50 pm
ahhh ok, hadn’t realized. here in australia you just have your regular check ups with the maternal child health nurse (i think it’s called a health visitor over there??). we only really go to a paed if there’s an issue that’s beyond your usual doctor. i took my first for his 6 week check up with a paed and she gave him his 6 week needles (nervous first time mom haha) but beyond that it’s just the health nurse.
I believe health visitors are a UK thing. In the US, baby's see pediatricians regularly, it's totally normal. Well checks, sick visits, vaccines, etc. Are all with the ped. There are no health visitors or nurses or anything like that. I mean, there's nurses, but they're at the pediatrician's office and will see you first and take measurements and stuff before seeing the doctor.
oh that’s really interesting!! paed in australia is for a serious issue only. what you guys call your well visits, we have here with the nurse. if there’s an issue, they will refer you on to see your regular family doctor, and if the issue is really serious, the doctor will refer you to a paed. the paed is really expensive here (like upwards of $200 per visit, we had an hour long consult with one at the beginning of december for potential asd for our eldest and it was $475). is the paed cost in the usa really high too? there’s absolutely no way a lot of people here could afford to see a paed as the first port of call, they’re really for specialist issues. ahhh ok, HV is a uk thing.
Wow that's crazy! Sounds like pediatrician's are considered specialists for you guys. They're just regular kid doctors for us. Considering the state of the US healthcare system, asking if it's expensive is a loaded question lol for us, all our well visits are covered under our insurance, so we don't pay for them. If we have a sick visit, it's a $30 copay. I do know that my ped charges $225 (I think, somewhere around there) for our well visits as I see it on the paperwork, but that all gets charged to the insurance. So is it expensive? Yes, but I don't think it's outrageous considering how expensive other medical services can get. I found it's about the same for the ped as it is for a family doctor, my ob, etc. It's hard to give a definitive answer given how different our healthcare is compared to yours. Then you add in everyone having different insurances, co pays, deductibles, different costs in different states, how much you're paying each paycheck for the insurance etc. So I can only speak to my experience. It's incredibly complicated lol
So, long story short, yes it's expensive, but all healthcare here is. Depending on your insurance coverage everyone will have a different experience in regards to what they're paying.