Sitting here thinking about the old days ... I remember the days when if someone was going in to the hospital, it was probably for an operation or something drastic. Now, my wife goes once a month to get her finger pricked and her blood checked, and on another occasion, for a shot.
You used to go to the Doctor because you were sick, or something was wrong. Now, I have to go to get a prescription filled. I wonder why medical costs are so out of hand?
I never went to the Doctor till I was 18 (my Dad was a Doctor), first visit to the hospital, to have my appendix out. My back and hip were giving me trouble in high school, carried some large bags of cement to the back of our lot. Dad was building a picnic house. I went down the street to see Doctor Ed Werner, a neighbor, he gave me a shot of Penicillin and taped my hip. Last of the problem till a few years ago.
Actually, when we lost power a year or so ago, for four of five days, we ate at the local hospital. All the restaurants were out of food or power, the hospital wasn't.
I will never forget the Sunday morning, I was in the hospital for something or other, in came a doctor to check on me, never seen him before. Blue jeans, T-shirt, thongs and a pony tail, rather a long one. He mumbled something, I nodded, he walked out. I think we got billed $235 for that visit. I knew he was a doctor, he had a doctor's coat on, the only way I knew.
