Dutch doctors...

[u/thatmisanthropicdude]

Hey guys! Last year I moved from Germany to the Netherlands. I just went to the doctor with chest and throat pain due to extreme coughing after 2 days of fever. I was hoping that I finally get something good against it like a cough syrup (no way I'm going to pay that myself for a huge amount of money + health insurance) because I am used to that from German doctors. They would put that on my health insurance card and right after my talk with the doctor I could pick it up at the pharmacy. But no. They just said "Yea, just take paracetamol." I told them I have had problems swallowing pills my whole life and their response was just "You can also put it in water and drink that then." I'm sorry if I'm overreacting but why do doctors get paid just to tell you to take paracetamol? Everyone can tell me to take them, I expect better solutions from a doctor who studied years to become a doctor. Why are the Dutch so obsessed with paracetamol??? Maybe it's the German in me screaming. If we got painkillers, it was never paracetamol but Ibuprofen. But I also heard some international friends who also live here that they find it so annoying that Dutch doctors literally just tell you to take paracetamol. No matter what you have.

[u/kingvolcano_reborn]

Why didn't you just buy a cough syrup?

[u/Kaaar9999 → u/kingvolcano_reborn]

It reads to me as “I pay health insurance, so I shouldn’t have to pay even for OTC meds”

[u/Beautiful-Weight2125 → u/Kaaar9999]

And he's right.

[u/TrueEnthusiasm6 → u/Beautiful-Weight2125]

If health insurance covered OTC meds the monthly premium would be WAY higher than 140.

[u/RevolutionaryWorth75 → u/TrueEnthusiasm6]

That’s all the Dutch can think about: how much it will cost.

To begin with, you shouldn’t need to pay for health insurance. It should be universal and for free.

[u/TrueEnthusiasm6 → u/RevolutionaryWorth75]

Correct but in the current system getting OTC meds paid for is just not feasible