Medication in Indonesia

Diabetes medication namely insulin is 4million a month here in batam less than £10 per month uk
In comparison on salary/ wages i would say indonesia is extremely over priced compared to a uk citizen in the UK and v / v
But in general a uk citizen with the odd exception its very similar here and uk

You sound like a linguist Shill88, Good for you.   

It's ok Steven-H to get a letter to bring certain medication into Indonesia with your carry on but the big problem is you need to go out of Indonesia to bring it in your carry on, expensive!!

I get my prescribed medication every 2 months from the UK which is the maximum they will give you at any one time!  I surely wouldn't want to go to the UK every 2 months. My medication is free by the way so I certainly wouldn't want to buy it here in Indonesia not just for the expense but for reasons as above as shill88 mentioned.

BTW, Fred, no one said medicine was free for everyone in the UK, you'll have to use your common sense on that one.

Shill88 wrote:

Getting back to the original question, medicines are more expensive than in my home country because prescribed medicines back home are free. .

grenadier wrote:

.
BTW, Fred, no one said medicine was free for everyone in the UK, you'll have to use your common sense on that one.

You might be inaccurate or accepting of the somewhat misleading statement quoted, but it should also be noted expats that would normally get free medicines in the UK are less likely to be here AND have to pay.

UK unemployed are unlikely to be expats
Pensioners must have medical cover in order to meet retirement visa terms
Under 18s are unlikely to be here alone
That leaves inpatients in UK hospitals that can't be here because they're in hospital in England, and long term illness sufferers, the only group likely to lose out unless you're an uninsured expat that develops a serious illness or one that get's involved in an accident that requires hospitalization, and has no insurance.
Even then, the hospital costs will hammer your wallet a lot more than the drugs ever will. However, it would make sense to have insurance for those unfortunate possibilities.

That takes us back to drugs you're likely to have to pay for, and they tend to be cheaper or similarly priced to the UK.
That goes for routine immunizations such as tetanus, so cheap it's not worth the paperwork of trying to claim anything back. Immunizations for kids are free for the most part, or silly cheap for extras I would consider essential, MMR coming to mind.
Visits to a doctor for jabs or chemists for drugs are of no concern because the weight loss in my wallet is usually less than a decent dinner, or even a McD burger most of the time.

The odd occasion I've needed medication, I couldn't be bothered to claim because it was so cheap.
There goes the reality - Drugs are either cheap or covered by insurance for the vast majority of expats. Common sense really.

You sound like a linguist Shill88, Good for you.   

It's ok Steven-H to get a letter to bring certain medication into Indonesia with your carry on but the big problem is you need to go out of Indonesia to bring it in your carry on, expensive!!

I get my prescribed medication every 2 months from the UK which is the maximum they will give you at any one time!  I have to work it so I get it in a different way, if you get my drift!

I surely wouldn't want to go to the UK every 2 months. My medication is free by the way so I certainly wouldn't want to buy it here in Indonesia not just for the expense but for reasons as above as shill88 mentioned.

BTW, Fred, no one said medicine was free for everyone in the UK, you'll have to use your common sense on that one.

Haha....not really, I just made some career changes and moved around a bit so can speak a few languages but I never really had any interest in that.

I actually just chatted with my pharmacist who is helping me with one of my doctors and on Thursday they will have some medication ready for me to pick up. I originally paid almost a million Rupiah for three pots of this stuff but since it was too strong to the point of being carcenogenic and contains steroids which reduces the immunity (it's topical and not internally used) so I will arrange Gojek to pick it up on Thursday as I really want to stay well away from hospitals.

Unfortunately as we get older we seem to need to visit doctors more often and buy medication more frequently.

Gwmeath wrote:

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-12928485

Only england pay this is from BBC 2011

As the posters claims to be English, that seems to be the point.

Received my latest batch of lotion from the hospital using Gojek who paid the surcharge of Rp126k for the two pots to be made less intense. That makes the price per pot almost Rp400k, but well worth it as the lotion is brilliant. The pharmacist was WhatsApp'ing me to keep me informed and by the time I went downstairs my wife had already paid the Gojek rider. And neither of us needed to go anywhere near a hospital....well worth the money.

That has just reminded me, when we went to Santorini and Italy for holidays in 2018, the heat was really intense. My daughter, son and I got a bit of heat rash, went to visit a hospital in Santorini and the doctor said he sees this so many times each day, and just gave us some lotion to apply. We did it of course, but it was not until we got to Earl's Court in London that we managed to buy some Calamine Lotion which is pretty amazing.

Well recently I got a heat rash and tried a couple of lotions including one that was a local but more watery version with the calamine lotion ingredient. What a waste of money. Fortunately my wife found the old tube of the real thing that we bought in London and I used it and in a couple of days the rash had gone. Calamine lotion has been around like forever, even I remember my mum using it on my youngest sister for her nappy rash. Brilliant. Sometimes you just wish that those medicines back home were readily available here instead of using similar generic things that just never work as well.