Ja-young's hospital charges

[JadeEyes]

I thought the business w/ Young-joon paying for Ja-young's hospital expenses a little odd. Either Korea has nationalized health care, or people have individual insurance coverage. It's a developed nation and economy, and it just isn't credible that neither system would be in place.

Ja-young has a full-time job and even though she's on a leave of absence, it's hard to believe she wouldn't have health insurance through her job---unless people in Korea don't have health insurance. In which case, they'd have nationalized health.

The funny part of this is, I've noticed the same thing comes up on US daytime dramas all the time. Characters go into the hospital constantly for one crisis or another. How it gets paid for is never an issue until and unless they want to make not being able to pay part of the plot (or some incredibly generous guardian angel steps in to cover the bill anonymously, as was the case here). When that happens, the bill gets treated as though it's a hotel, not a hospital, w/ the patient having to settle up the entire amount at the time of discharge. (Did you all notice how Ja-young wen to the cashier w/ her wallet in hand, as though she was prepared to pay the entire bill then and there?)

I don't know how things work in Korea, but it can't be that different than hospitals here.

Can you imagine how much money that bill would have to be? Young-joon must've shelled out thousands of dollars. We were talking about it at home and my husband had me cracking up. He was going:

humidifier: 30 Korean yen per day
refrigerator fee: 50 Korean yen per day....

LOL! And I still say the baby being 6 weeks premature makes no sense. Young-joon confirmed yesterday in his scene w/ Hyun-ji that the baby was 6 weeks early. But we know from Sang-min that it's already the first day of autumn (Sept. 22). The latest Ja-young could've become pregnant was just before Christmas...which would make her due date the time it's supposed to be now. A real gaffe in the writing.

I know the baby having to be in an incubator makes "better drama" from the standpoint of the writer. But it's stretches like that in credibility which strain the faith of the viewer...something I've always given YH high marks on, in comparison to US TV dramas.

If they really wanted to throw in some drama, they could've had the baby be on time, but have jaundice...that's a fairly common complication in newborns that requires the baby to stay in the nursery a few extra days under ultra-violet light. Ja-young could still look at the baby in the nursery tearfully and longingly and pine over not being able to take him home immediately w/o presenting a scenario of a baby being premature after the mother has been pregnant for 10 mos.!

Jade Eyes

[yobo]

You make some good points, Sr. Addict, but remember that YJ paid with a credit card, and that's probably what JY was about to do. So the simple explanation for all this is that in Korea they have very high credit limits!

[Betz]

Hi Jade Eyes...

"...which would make her due date the time it's supposed to be now. A real gaffe in the writing."

I do not speak or write Korean... but just a thought...

possibly somewhere along the way with the translation maybe the #s / digits, when counting the weeks/months, got turned around, or mixed up

Betz in Philly

[JadeEyes]

I did notice the charges went on his credit card and assumed Ja-young would pay the same way. But that still doesn't explain why a hospital patient would have to pay the bill upon leaving the hospital the way you do w/ hotel charges. It doesn't explain why she doesn't have either health insurance through her work, or why the gov't. doesn't pick up the tab if they have nationalized healthcare, as 95% of the developed world does (except here in this backwards system).

As for the due date business...I don't think even a mistake in translation can account for it. The point is, we know she could not have conceived later than Christmas, because she and Sang-min broke up just before Christmas. That would put her due date some time in Sept. Sang-min said the other day that it's now Sept. It's hard to believe a translator could goof something as simple as that. We know the baby is supposedly premature. That can't be a mistake in translation.

For the baby to be a month and a half early if its due date was mid-to-later Sept., it would have to be born about now...early Aug. or even later July. It seems like it's been summer there forever now. The logic here is still faulty, even granting them liberal leeway.

Not only that, but when the grandmother was visiting before, she said something to Ja-young about the baby being due in a month and that she would stay 10 days. After the grandmother had returned home, we had a scene of Ja-young at the doctor's office being told she was due in a month and a half. So many days after that conversation w/ her grandmother, somehow her pregnancy had backed up by about 3 weeks! And then some more time passed, and the baby is born and everyone is talking about it being a month and a half early.

The numbers just don't add up right. But it's a small complaint. I'm willing to cut them slack, as I enjoy the show so much.

Jade Eyes

[Soju]

Here in the USA, many people consider Summer over after Labor Day, even though, astronomically, it goes on for three more weeks. Perhaps there is some similar, maybe earlier, colloquial end of Summer in Korea.

[mikey]

JadeEyes said:

If they really wanted to throw in some drama, they could've had the baby be on time, but have jaundice...that's a fairly common complication in newborns Jade Eyes

Good suggestion, Jade Eyes. Actually, remember how Ja-young went on a wild drinking binge early on in an attempt to induce a miscarriage? It might have added something interesting to the plotline had all that drinking been the cause of her baby’s complications at birth. But, maybe it would have just been too tragic. Heck, Ja-young’s got enough troubles already, don’t you think?

Mikey

[mikey]

Ummm . . . just thought of something to add about the hospital charges. Maybe Ja-young had insurance, but there was a deductable she had to pay. I had health insurance once that had a hefty $2,000 deductable -- ouch! But any costs over that were covered.

[galacticchick]

Ummm . . . just thought of something to add about the hospital charges. Maybe Ja-young had insurance, but there was a deductable she had to pay. I had health insurance once that had a hefty $2,000 deductable -- ouch! But any costs over that were covered.

Yeah, that's what I thought too. And about the whole deal with her pregnancy and the flaws in the writing...it's called artistic license. The show, as JE has mentioned before, is great! ;D

[JadeEyes]

But, mikey, when you paid your deductibles, were you required to pay them before leaving the hospital, the way a guest at a hotel must do? Or did the hospital bill your insurance and then send you a bill for the portion you owed? That's the standard practice. I don't know how it's done in Korea, but it smells like pure dramatic device to me, not in any way resembling how things are done in Korean hospitals.

Yes, I know dramas have artistic license, and fans always grant them this. But one thing I admire and enjoy so much about Yellow Handkerchief is what a good job it usually does in staying closer to realism than daytime dramas in the US; I think it really strengthens the story-telling. So when they lapse and do things like the goofed up timeline w/ the pregnancy and the illogical depiction of how healthcare is delivered or bills are paid, it intrudes on the smooth continuity of the story, IMO. It's jarring because it reminds you you're watching fiction, not entering into the lives of people you've come to think of as almost real. This diminishes the enjoyment for a lot of viewers -- myself included.

But because YH is such a high quality drama, I can forgive it a great many liberty takings.

Jade Eyes