Accident and Emergency

Dear International Living Reader,

They came singly and in pairs, in green and orange jerseys, all limping, some carrying one or both shoes and sporting gashes about their heads and faces. Irish boys who had been taking advantage of the fine end-of-summer Sunday to play hard at various Gaelic games...now landed in the Accident and Emergency ward of Waterford Regional Hospital.

Our boy, on the other hand, had been playing basketball in the backyard when he tripped and fell and landed his chin on the edge of a flower pot...then he and we joined the Irish lads in the emergency room.

The experience went as a visit to any emergency room in any hospital in any country in the world would go, I imagine. We waited three hours to see a doctor, who prescribed a few stitches.

The Irish healthcare system is "in crisis," the local papers remind us regularly. Hospital staff striking for more pay...the government health board removing beds from hospitals for want of funds...patients waiting months for appointments and surgeries.

Fortunately, our experience doesn't reflect any of this. In the 4 1/2 years we've lived here, our little family has sought help for flus and sore throats, a broken shoulder and a dislocated one, an allergic reaction, the (complicated) birth of our son, and, yesterday, the repair of his chin. I can say nothing bad about Irish healthcare.

It can be free. Of course, I realize, we're paying for it with our tax euro...nevertheless, you have no direct out-of-pocket expense.

Heath insurance is amazingly cheap by U.S. standards. We have BUPA (the only alternative is VHI), which costs 323 euro per person per year (112 euro per year for a child younger than 17)...and covers us not only while we're in Ireland but also anywhere in the world, including return to Ireland from any country for emergency treatment. You must, though, front most expenses at the time the care is delivered. You pay the doctor or the pharmacist or the hospital...save your receipts...then make one claim annually for total reimbursement, save some deductible (ours is 200 euro a year).

We have one GP for the entire family. She saw me through my pregnancy...Jack through the chicken pox...Kaitlin through her allergic reaction to strawberries...and my husband through his dislocated shoulder. The cost of a visit to Dr. Triona Sliney has increased from 20 pounds (about $25) when we moved here to 40 euro (about $44) today. Again, though, the cost of every visit is completely reimbursable annually save the deductible.

Kathleen Peddicord
Publisher, International Living

P.S. Glad to be back home in Ireland...Jack's Sunday afternoon mishap aside. Autumn is settling in. Mornings are chilly, and the sun is setting an hour earlier than it was when we left for our vacation three weeks ago.