Minute Clinic

What do you do if you find yourself sick and without insurance? Well, you could go to your primary care physician. My doctor said the visit would cost between $170 & $400, and they need the money at the time of service. Then, if you need prescriptions, well, it could easily get to $1000 total. I have been putting off going, but I have been sick for 6 weeks. Now, I know I have sinusitis and my lungs hurt really bad. So, I had to go somewhere, so that I wouldn't wind up in the hospital with an even bigger bill.
I went to Minute Clinic. It's a clinic inside CVS. I had never been to one before. While I knew it would be the same service as my primary care physician, and was shocked at the big difference. I was seen by a nurse. No doctors in the house... She listened to my lungs and checked my vitals. She then entered the information into the computer, and the computer told her what to do... Huh??? Well, it is called "minute" clinic, but good grief! I guess I got what I paid for. For $59, I walked out with a diagnosis (sinusitis and bronchitis) and a prescription for an antibiotic. The starngest thing that happened is when she asked me if I had ever used an inhaler. She told me that I had wheezing in my lungs. I told her that my daughter had the machine at home and the Xopenex that goes with it. She told me to use her medicine... Huh? Is this for real?
It was a very surreal experience. Anyone who has not seen the Michael Moore documentary "Sicko", check it out today. http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/index.html It is great!!! It is not about unisured people, but underinsured people. However, it covers a problem that we have in America. I had access to Cobra after I was laid off from Countrywide. However, our insurance was so bad that I would have had to pay a lot of out of pocket expenses plus the premium ($1110 monthly for our family of 4). So, I didn't see taking the insurance as an option.