Public healthcare is not cheap. The Basque Health Service (Osakidetza) has already published the update of its “rate book” for 2025 with the prices of the hundreds of benefits it offers to citizens. This is a guide for issuing invoices when the care is not covered for some reason – care for work accidents, other mutual insurance companies such as Muface or Mugeju, cases corresponding to automobile, sports or hunting insurance or foreigners without a reciprocity agreement with Spain – but also a reminder of the importance of a model that, in general, is universal and free access and covered by taxes.
The cost for one day of hospitalization is 1,339 euros and rises to 2,025 in the case of special units. This includes the bed, medical and nursing care and meals and overnight stay, as well as the required medication. An income without “stay” is 362 euros. In the emergency room, care costs 269 euros but “all other tests are billed separately.” In the PAC it is somewhat cheaper, 92 euros. Hospitalization at home is also paid: 290 euros per day.
And the tests? A drug analysis rises to 441 euros and a breathalyzer costs 177 euros. A PCR, so popular in the pandemic, amounts to 106 euros and a rapid test costs 36 euros. More examples: a standard ultrasound costs 82 euros but there are special ones that almost touch 500. A basic x-ray is around 45 euros – and each copy 27 – and a bilateral mammogram amounts to 62 euros. Breast pigmentation after an operation exceeds 500 euros. Extracting a nail costs 186 euros, like doing it with a tooth. The colonoscopy rises to 312 euros. The artificial insemination treatment is billed at 1,871 euros. Blood collection is the cheapest in Osakidetza: 7 euros.
In the operating room, costs skyrocket. A heart or lung transplant of maximum severity exceeds 146,000 euros and it is even more expensive to operate on a newborn, up to 183,000 euros. “In interventions in which the Da Vinci robot is used, the price of the GRD will increase by 4,076 euros in terms of consumables,” it is stated.
In the outpatient clinic, an ordinary medical consultation costs 68 euros, a telephone consultation costs 34 euros, and a nursing consultation costs 29 euros. The vaccination costs 18 euros and a childbirth preparation session costs 113 euros. Processing a cancellation is quantified at 6 euros. A mental health consultation or therapy session has a cost of 197. In the case of outpatient consultations, the visit to the specialist costs 249 euros, although successive visits are cheaper, 125. Oncological processes can exceed 11,000 euros, although A “superficial” radiotherapy session costs 14 and chemotherapy costs 868 per session.
Mobilizing an ambulance for a public event costs 1,063 euros and then 164 euros per hour. Regarding transfers, basic life support costs 345 euros, a unit with nursing 563 euros and advanced life support 1,025 euros if the journey is less than 100 kilometers and 3.13 for each additional one. The helicopter has a price of 8,602 euros. These prices have suffered a very significant increase compared to 2017, for example. As a reference, then the Da Vinci was 3,218 euros, the helicopter was 6,917 euros, the most serious transplants were around 140,000 euros and consultations were 55 euros in the outpatient clinic and 151 euros in the specialist, for example.
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