Features of Medicine and Insurance in China

I have never been poisoned in China, despite the horror stories about the horrors of unsanitary conditions. But I didn’t eat outdoor barbecue and didn’t go into questionable roadside cafes.

If you plan to try exotic fried scorpions or beetles, I advise you to stock up on enterosorbents. Just in case, take anti-allergenic drugs: I was allergic to unusual spices and exotic fruits for the first time in China.

In ordinary Chinese pharmacies, herbal preparations and Band-Aids are mainly sold. Paracetamol and other medications familiar to us can only be found in pharmacies at hospitals. They will be given out on a doctor’s prescription.

Foreigners are accepted in public hospitals. It is not difficult to get an appointment with a therapist or a narrow specialist there: you will only need a passport. Admission costs 6-60 rubles. Get ready to wait in line for a couple of hours and take a blood test on the spot.

A visit to a private clinic is expensive. In 2015, the insurance company paid $300⁣ for taking Laura, packing antibiotics and ear drops.

If in private hospitals doctors definitely speak English, then in public hospitals it is a lottery. I was lucky only once: a dermatologist had an internship in the USA and knew English. There was a shower curtain in his office instead of a door, and other patients came into the office during the examination. He prescribed the right treatment — the allergy has passed.