Five Reasons You Should Get Vaccinated

From the dawn of time, the human population has periodically been decimated by outbreaks of serious disease. In the 1600s, bubonic plague was rife across Europe and millions perished from the disease. The influenza virus has also been a deadly killer over the centuries and even today, people still die from the more serious strains of the flu. But thankfully for mankind, many of the most serious diseases such as yellow fever, typhoid and diphtheria have been all but eradicated as a result of widespread vaccination programmes.

Why Bother With Vaccinations?

Even though serious diseases such as measles and mumps have mostly been vanquished in modern society, they haven't disappeared completely, which is why vaccination programmes are just as vital today as they were a few decades ago. Without protection from vaccinations, you and your family are at risk of serious disease or even death.

Vaccinations Are Safe

Millions of people are vaccinated every year and even though there are inevitably a small number of people who experience bad reactions to the vaccine, vaccinations are considered to be very safe. All vaccines have been rigorously tested and are among the safest types of medicine available today. You could opt out of a vaccination program, but the risk of suffering any side effects from the vaccine is far smaller than your risk of catching a serious disease.

Vaccines Offer Protection to the Vulnerable

All vaccine preventable diseases are serious. If a healthy adult catches a deadly strain of the influenza virus, they are likely to become extremely ill, but if a vulnerable person with a weakened immune system, a child or someone elderly catches the flu, they are far more likely to die as a result of the disease. Vaccinations offer protection to those most at risk of complications or death from serious diseases, so why die needlessly for the sake of a simple injection?

Vaccines Protect Your Family

When the main breadwinner of a family becomes seriously ill from an entirely preventable disease, it puts their family at risk. An ill person cannot work and if the disease causes life changing complications, the end result can be devastating. You might not think you are at risk of catching a disease such as tuberculosis, but these diseases are still out there and people who shun vaccinations are at risk of infection.

Preventable Disease is a Drain on Society

Treating serious diseases such as influenza, typhoid and cholera costs the economy billions every year. The direct medical costs alone are staggering, but when you take into account the indirect costs of preventable diseases such as influenza, which can cause a reasonably healthy person to be off work for up to two weeks, it is not difficult to see just how important vaccination programmes are in modern society.

Children and Vaccinations

There have been many scare stories surrounding childhood vaccinations and many parents have avoided having their child vaccinated. As a result of a lower take-up of some children's vaccination programmes, certain diseases such as measles and mumps have been making an unwanted return. Vaccine preventable childhood diseases can cause long-term and devastating health problems in children, but thanks to effective childhood vaccination programmes, horrible illness such as polio and whooping cough have all but disappeared. However, if parents decide to boycott vaccination programmes for fear of side effects, it won't be long before such diseases start to reappear once again.

Holiday Vaccinations Are Also Important

For most people heading off on their holidays, thoughts of serious illness and disease are the last thing on their mind, but holiday vaccinations are just as important as any other form of immunisation. Diseases such as hepatitis, yellow fever and diphtheria are rife in some parts of the world and if you become infected, you could end up taking home more than a sun tan.

Author: Carlo Pandian is a freelance blogger covering health, well being and medicine. He also reviews private vaccinations services at Blossoms Healthcare and loves involving doctors in Q&A sessions with online patients. When he’s not online, Carlo spend his time visiting London and the contemporary art museums in town.

What are the Costs of Urgent Healthcare?

Urgent care facilities provide walk-in medical care for minor medical conditions that do not require emergency treatment. Urgent care facilities operate on a model based on efficiency, so the costs for medical care at these facilities are significantly lower than costs for similar treatments at hospital emergency rooms. Urgent care facilities are privately run, thus unlike emergency room hospitals, they are not required to be open 24 hours a day, and they can set their own business hours. Because they are privately owned businesses, they deliver medical care on a business model, but the primary advantage of this is lower costs. Urgent care facilities have all the staff on hand to handle a variety of medical concerns and appointments are not necessary to see a physician.

Will They Accept My Insurance?

Because urgent care facilities are operated in order to be cost effective, they try as much as possible to streamline the billing process. Most insurance plans are accepted by urgent care facilities. In fact, because treatments at emergency rooms are generally more costly, insurers prefer their customers to go to urgent care clinics. It can be a good idea to call ahead to an urgent care facility to make sure they will accept an insurance plan. The only insurance plan that may not be accepted is Medicaid. Again, this is largely a concern about the cost. The cost of billing and collecting from Medicaid is usually higher than with a commercial insurance company; thus, an urgent care facility will prefer to bill directly to the customer instead if they have Medicaid.

Payment Options

Urgent care facilities are great at providing many payment options for their customers. In addition to accepting most insurance plans, they also offer payment plans for their services, and can occasionally offer coupons and specials for services like preventive testing and seasonal flu vaccines. If a customer chooses to initiate a payment plan, generally a nominal downpayment is required, and no interest is incurred so long as payments are not in default. Some urgent care facilities even provide self-pay discounts for customers who choose to pay without using their insurance.

How Do Urgent Care Costs Compare With Emergency Room Treatment?

By and large, urgent care treatment is cheaper than emergency room treatment. For a host of medical conditions not requiring emergency medical care, urgent care facilities are the best option for those concerned about the costs of medical care. Generally, treatment at an urgent care facility is one half to one quarter of the cost of emergency room treatment. For example, the cost of getting allergy treatment at an urgent care facility is around $97. Compare this to a cost of $345 for the same treatment at an emergency room. Sinusitis is a common problem for people with allergy troubles. The cost of seeing a physician for sinusitis at an urgent care facility can be around $112; however, at an emergency room the cost is a whopping $617.

The Bottom Line

What people may not realize is that emergency rooms bill patients for more than just a doctor's diagnosis. Patients are billed for the use of the facility, doctors are contracted to staff emergency rooms, and insurance companies consider emergency rooms specialty treatment resulting in higher copays. When compared to urgent care facilities, emergency rooms do not provide a good value for the service they render, and urgent care facilities offer cheaper medical costs along with good customer service.

Sheri Clark writes for healthcare blogs. If you're curious about urgent care facilities, read more about how urgent care clinics work.