Yesterday, Kenric was so out of it he started eating dinner with two forks, so we decided to skip breakfast and sleep in. Even with the Big Red Do-Not-Disturb sign, someone still tried to open the door with their key before 10:30 am, and even after we let them know we were in the room. Such a weird hotel.

The town doctor’s office is only open between 5 and 7 pm today. I later saw that when the arzt (doctor) is not here in Hallstatt, she’s available in the next town, Obertraun. We arrived a few minutes before five. There were two other patients waiting. The receptionist asked for Kenric’s passport. Waited for about ten minutes. The doctor came out, “Mr. Erickson, bitte.” He came back out within ten minutes.

He came back with a little box – he thinks the guy on the box looks like Mr. Clean. But, let me see the receipt first because I couldn’t believe my ears! Yep, €49.54 ($58.81 USD) for a no-insurance walk-in consultation, the doctor drawing blood, the blood test, and the antibiotics, all done within 20 minutes.

We went for pizza – that’s what he associates with America (???). He’s feeling a little homesick, but also feeling better psychologically even though he hasn’t taken any medicine for his tonsillitis yet. He’s just optimistic that the medicine will work. This would have taken at least two days in the U.S., and those without insurance will suffer for as long as they could bear before going to the ER. The local patients here only had to show their insurance card, and do not have to pay out of pocket.

While I’m happy Kenric’s feeling better, it made me cry thinking about the agony sick people in the U.S. go through. It made me angry that there are tens of millions of people that insist on making their fellow Americans suffer more than they already do from their illnesses. Nobody wants to get sick.