Healthcare in South Korea

Since it's our last week in Korea, I've been going through all bills and receipts that I've collected the past two years.  Yes, I am "one of those people" - I save bills for at least one year.  While going through everything, I came across all of our medical receipts.  In the past two years, we've (I, really) managed to rack up quite a few!

You might think, "So what?  Big deal!"  You're right.  If I were back home, there is no way I would share this information with you.  However, I want to share with you just how awesome the Korean healthcare system is.

As you can see in the picture, one or both of us went to a doctor or the hospital at least 25 times.  When I calculated the total cost, it only came up to 1,607,380 Won (~$1,600.00).  I added in 200,000 Won for the various health checks we were required to get and 300,000 Won for Zach's wisdom teeth removal.  That's a total of 2,100,000 Won (~$2,000.00).

What's more impressive is what the costs included:

• a trip (or two) to the E.R.
• 10 sessions of laser hair removal
• a tubal ligation where I had to spend the night in the hospital 
• a vasectomy
• and countless infections

What's not included is the medication.  However, each time we got medicine, the average cost was about 5,000 Won.

I guess the moral of the story is that if you're going to get sick, the best place to do it is probably South Korea!

Laser Hair Removal

Zach and I will sometimes play that game.  You know the one.  "What would you do if you had  X amount of money?"  One thing I always say is that I would have hair removal done.  A friend of mine surprised me a couple weeks ago by telling me that she had laser hair removal done here in Busan.  I asked her for all the details and she was more than willing to share them with me.  Now, I will share them with you!

I went to a place called 애플 피부과 Apple Dermatology.

A great thing about this place is that you don't need an appointment; just show up!

Directions:

Take the subway to Sasang, the transfer station between the Green Line (Line 2) and the Purple Line (Busan Gimhae Light Rail Transit).  Go out of Exit 3 at Sasang.

Apple Dermatology is located in the Apple Outlet shopping center directly to the right of Exit 3.

This is taken from the top of Exit 3.

Turn right at this building.  ^^

Go through these doors and take the elevator to the 5th floor.

As soon as you get off the elevator, this will be right in front of you.

Once you get inside, the receptionist will ask you for your name, Alien Registration Card (ARC), and phone number.  The receptionist could speak enough English for me to give her everything she needed.  I sat in the waiting room for a full 2 minutes before going in to see the doctor.  The doctor spoke a good amount of English.  He asked me what I wanted.  That's when I said I wanted hair removed from my armpits.  He told me that I would have to do 5-10 sessions once per month depending on how well the treatment was working.  He also told me that the first time was only 10,000 Won (~10.00 USD).  I didn't ask him outright, but I'm pretty sure each treatment after that is 20,000 Won because that's how much my fried had to pay.  He then asked me if I wanted to get started today.  I told him yes!

I followed him into an ER type setup with curtains dividing beds.  I removed my shirt and put on gown that covered my top half.  He came back into the room and his assistant put cream on the area they were going to laser.  The actual laser took about 1 minute per armpit.  It wasn't really painful but slightly uncomfortable.  His assistant put more cream on and I was free to change back into my shirt.

FYI:  My friend started to notice some changes after 2 weeks.  I'm not sure what other areas they laser and how much they cost, but I would assume they do everything.

It was seriously as easy as that!  I will keep you updated on how things are going and if/when I start to notice any changes!

UPDATE 8/19/14:  I went to my last laser treatment today.  I did a total of 10 sessions.  (I slacked off during the winter months.)  I am so happy that I decided to do this because I notice a huge difference!  My first six sessions cost 10,000 Won and the last four cost 11,000 Won