Insurance & Costs of having and raising a child

[CityFarmer]

Quite recent a close relative had "sudden stroke like symptoms" so rushed to NUH bef consultation cashier ask us to pay over $200 1st (I guesss what they say is true that government is pay 1st then work)
after dat had to go thru several young doctor all checked and said cannot find any problems maybe that's why had to go thru several doctors.
So in the end they told us full checks will cause around $5k must queue 3 month for treatment?
huh wtf? Already cannot tahan how to still wait 3 month? Since we also are not medically trained and dunno what the heck they want to check or why and they also not very confident that's why they wanted to do a full check. So how to make any informed decision if the experts themselves aren't even sure?
So on the spot we decided to go for private healthcare, I remember it was already friday and almost evening nobody knew which hospital had treatment for such issues so we called friends and asked around and somebody recommended. Won't mention the hospital here but suffice to say they had very experienced people, the doctor nailed the possible cause within a hours but had to stay about 2 nights over the weekend for further observation those folks later informed us no treatment required at all the 13k bill we paid in several stages over the few days in the end it was all out of pocket because no rider.

harsh painful lesson, don't be a cheapskate when it comes to healthcare buy proper insurance.

The NUH diagnosis was correct. The patient was not suffering from stroke.
If the patients are not in an urgent condition, they have to queue for diagnosis or pay more to jump the queue.

Everyday, there are hundreds of patients coming to public hospital and they have to prioritise their patients.
Compare to your relative, I suppose there were tens of patients in A&E that required immediate treatment.

It is natural that family members are worried but hospital resources, especially public hospitals, are not unlimited.

Yes, patient has to decide either pay as necessary (in public hospital), or pay more for physical and psychological comfort (in private hospital). It is a choice, limited by ones resources. Medical cost in private can easily be 3x of restructured hospital IMO

I never have experience with NUH, but TTS seems better than NUH, base only on the experience described.