French Healthcare

Today I was finally able to experience first hand the French medical system. Last week I caught a cold, and like always I now have a sinus infection. In April I received my health insurance card. (Yeah, it took 7 months to receive it!) It has this little microchip in it, so the doctor took it and put it into the machine and all my info came up. Then he put all the new info into the computer and onto the card. I then took my prescriptions and went down to the pharmacy. They put the card into their computer and got all of my information. I was completely finished within 35 minutes…pretty incredible. I was really surprised everything went so smoothly compared to some of the other things I have done in France!

I liked the idea of having all this information on one card, so you don't have to fill in paperwork every time you go to see a different doctor. They could just pull up all your medical history on their computer, but I guess at the same time it would be scary if the card got lost or stolen.

I am alone this week because Sarah went on a weeklong language camp with a school. It is good that I have this time because I only have two and a half weeks left, and I have to pack up my entire room. I can’t believe how much stuff I have collected in the last 9 months. Today I bought a new suitcase, so I will be able to get my stuff back. I mailed one box, but it is really expensive (50 euros) and it took over a month to get there, so I think this will be easier. My family will be able to take a couple of my suitcases back with them when they come to visit.

Well, I guess I better get busy…