Life is Dangerous, Take Care of Yourself
The world can be a scary place. While the news is determined to scare us on a daily basis, we have to fight through terrifying statistics about illnesses, diseases, and the costs of fixing them. Depending on your ailment, you might be overwhelmed with options for healthcare, too. You might need a health clinic for women, a children’s clinic, a community health clinic, STD testing, a dermatologist’s office, or about a million other specialties. How do you make sense of it?
How to Simplify Your Search
Who you need to see depends on who you are. If you’re a woman experiencing reproductive health issues, a health clinic for women is probably right for you. For men in the same boat, STD testing clinics are a good option (even if you’re not concerned about whether you have an STD — these clinics, much like a health clinic for women, are excellent at providing information about all things reproductive or sexual in nature). If you’re either gender and can’t afford care, free health clinics exist all over the country. If you’re unable to go anywhere during daylight hours, do a search for after hours urgent care and find the nearest location available.
More specialized problems, of course, require more specialized care. Some studies suggest that the United States will need about 50,000 more primary care physicians in the next ten years to meet healthcare needs. However, primary care physicians are increasingly in the business of referring patients to specialized care. A primary care physician (PCP) will most likely not treat the one in 20 over-65 Americans who have some form of memory loss. They will instead get that person a referral to a memory unit.
Finding the right clinic can be a financially motivated choice as well. As mentioned above, the likes of a health clinic for women, a walk-in clinic, or an urgent care may cost less than getting bounced from office to office or using an emergency room. In fact, the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey states that an average emergency room visitor pays about $1,300 for their visit. Finding something to lighten that financial load could very likely be worth the effort.
