Hawaiian Healthcare
Anyone who’s visited Maui, Hawaii has heard of the Baldwin Home, an historical site in Lahaina. There is a document on display there, dated July 1865 which acts as a fee estimate for healthcare services of the time:
“The following is the scale of fees to which I consent, if a cure is affected:
1. Very great sickness…$50
2. Less than that…$40
3. A good deal less than that…$30
4. Small sickness…$20
5. Very small…$10
6. Attending a friend…$5
7. Incantation to find out disease…$3
8. Taking case from another doctor…$10
9. Certificate of a doctor…$3
10. Refusal by the patient to pay…$10
After practicing dentistry for nearly 30 years, Dr Hill and Dr Schneidmiller have encountered all of the above with one exception…#7. So, if one of the doctors should enter the operatory singing in a foreign tongue, be aware there may be a $3 fee!
