DocAdvisor

According to a recent New York Times article entitled "Looking Abroad for Health Savings,"

• A heart operation that might cost $130,000 in this country could cost $18,500 in Singapore or $10,000 in India.
• Estimates of the number of Americans traveling abroad for treatment — “medical tourism,” some call it — vary widely, from 75,000 to 750,000 last year. But many experts consider it a growth industry.

Given the proliferation of user-created content on sites like TripAdvisor and SpaFinder, I think it would behoove us to create a similar site guiding us to the best-of-the-best doctors worldwide.

Better yet, what about introducing an insurance carrier that significantly reduces its monthly (or annual) premiums by coordinating your care with low-cost, high-quality international options? Sure, that would mean even more jobs leaving the U.S. (and, in this case, those associated with highly qualified, well trained professionals) but, really, paying less than a tenth of the cost for a commensurate surgery (and saving $120K per procedure) might just alleviate our nation's escalating health care costs. Or, at the very minimum, provide a serious wake-up call to our big insurance firms.

As always, I'm sure there are major flaws in my logic. Feel free to point 'em out. If it takes a while for me to respond, it's because I'll be in Vietnam getting a face lift.

Sunflowers and Snow

I bought the most beautiful bouquet of flowers for my desk on Monday from Wegman's for under ten bucks. They look like they were delivered fresh from Arenas. Bright red/orange sunflowers mixed with gorgeous greens that seem to me (i.e., an un-naturalist!) to be herbs, berries and funky grasses. Just looking at this arrangement is helping me to forget that just behind me, outside my wall o' windows, lies a row of pine trees laden with snow. Snow!

The blanket of snow on the lawn between homes is so idyllic that it's hard to believe there were near white-out conditions while I was driving home through the park last night. Cars off the road due to black ice. Portions of the expressway closed.

Please remind me again: why do I live here?