Of Doctors, Pharmacists and HMOs.

My left eye has some sort of lump (huge). Its been there for about 8 weeks now. I had ignored the thing until everyone started yelling in my face: Dude whats wrong with your eye? Go see a doctor!
My employer provides a very good medical cover (thank God). So I walk into doctor #1 office.
The guy feels my eyelids and shines a bright torch into my pupil. He calls it a "cyst", scribbles something illegible on a piece of paper, certainly does not forget to add 1500/= consultation fee on the HMO claim form and merrily sends me to doctor #2.

Doctor #2.
Asks me to read jumbled letters on a white board. Declares my vision to be something like 6/9. Vision is not my problem.
Is it painful? He asks.
No doctor its not.
Is it a tumor? My turn.
No.
What causes it?
And so on and so forth.
Final advice. Rub lower eyelid with warm water every day. Then visit your pharmacist and buy this drug (insert illegible sht here). Turns out to be eyedrops.
Screech screech on the printer. 1500/= consultation fee. 500/= for the eyedrops. Sign here please. Stamp. MONEY in the bank. Smile for the freaking cameras. Please come after 1 week.

I apply the eyedrops and my eye actually begins to hurt. It also gets a sickly, red hue. No improvement. After one week I go back. I find another doctor, doctor #3. He pulls out my file and reads the prognosis.
Hmmmmmmm. He hums thoughtfully. We still need to observe it for a little longer. He quips. Meanwhile, stop using the eyedrops I will prescribe this ....(hands over an illegible note). Must be the god-complex. Because you cannot get through primary school and high school with handwriting like that. Even university. No one has time to read illegible garbage at school.
Another round of signing and charges.

I present the prescription at the pharmacy. The guy reads it and almost starts smiling (or I imagine it. I am not quite sure). He hands me a box of tablets. Augmentin. Sign here please. Whoa! The box costs almost 3000/=!

There is no improvement, in fact the situation has deteriorated. This is not the first time this has happened. If your cover is good, they hit it like there is no tomorrow. The last time I had malaria, I was given malaria medication and other complementary drugs, which came to a total of 9000/=.
And they never give you generic drugs. Never. You get drugs from Switzerland (made by Pfizer and Roche and cost the engine of a jet aircraft - I read the labels) packed as if they are to be ferried to the Queen of England. These cost as much as 50 times the price of the generics for the same effect. Then they want to spread the treatment over a period so that they bag as much consultation fees as possible.

May be I should not care. Of course everything is legal. Still, it does not sit right with me. Some Docs and Pharmacies are conning HMOs.