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.