For many places, it is the only free or low-cost game in town. What part of it's too expensive to go to the doctor on a monthly, tri-monthly, or yearly basis don't you get? A visit to a gynecologist is around $250, if they do a pap it's around $100 at the doctor's office and then however much for some lab to read the test and send the results. If you are lucky to have a clean pap, then no more doc visits for a year, by which time the cost will have risen...again! If you have an abnormal test, then there are visits, sometimes monthly, for more paps. Each of those visits have the $250 office call plus the $100 pap test, plus the lab to read it and they, of course, send you a bill each time! If your doctor's office has a mammogram, then there is whatever cost associated with that, plus the reading of the test. If you have to go outside for the test, there is another, separate charge, plus the reading. If you have a diaphragm or IUD, some doctors insist on seeing you every 6 months...at that $250 charge per visit. If you have depo shots, you have to go in every 3 months, altho that charge, after the initial visit, may be less than a doctor's visit, since the nurse usually gives the shots. BC implants are usually in place for 5 years, but you must bear the initial doctor's visit, plus another fee for the implantation. Some doctors insist on 6 month visits for these, others let you go a year between visits. Are you starting to see how the "other game in town" is too expensive for people who are low income and have no insurance? A visit to PP is based on your ability to pay, a sliding scale type thing. I am not sure how the reading of the tests work, but I know that no one is swatted with a huge bill for those either!Originally Posted by Enoch the Red
Well if your lover/mother/sister/aunt/grandma can't afford to see a full priced doctor, there is that possibility!I love the false dichotomy. Fund PP or your lover/mother/sister/aunt/grandma will die!
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