I was interning in California (I'm a Canadian citizen) when I felt compelled to go see a doctor because I spent about a week coughing up various different colours of phlegm (was awoken pretty much nightly with really bad hacking cough). I visited the walk-in clinic at Palo Alto Medical Foundation (in Palo Alto). I had travel insurance offered through my (Canadian) university supplement insurance plan (which for some reason wasn't in their system), so I was asked (albeit very politely) whether I'd like to pay for the visit in cash or credit card ($300 up front).
The doctor listened to me cough and did a swab for a staph infection before diagnosing me with the common flu and advising me to come back if it didn't subside within another week.
I guess in hindsight the visit cost much more than average (since $176 apparently is the 95th percentile cost for a routine doctor's visit), but it just seemed strange that seeing a doctor (not even emergency room) cost roughly half as much as an iPad.
The doctor listened to me cough and did a swab for a staph infection before diagnosing me with the common flu and advising me to come back if it didn't subside within another week.
I guess in hindsight the visit cost much more than average (since $176 apparently is the 95th percentile cost for a routine doctor's visit), but it just seemed strange that seeing a doctor (not even emergency room) cost roughly half as much as an iPad.