An experience with the Thai health care system after a bike accident there:

[ehrnst]

A friend of mine is traveling in Thailand. One of his traveling companions had a bike wreck and blogged about the experience:

"....It took me a total of $11 and one hour WITHOUT ANY APPOINTMENT to find out conclusively whether I had broken ribs or not. What would it have taken in the US to have this diagnosis? I think those in the United States know what they would have been in for.

I have had excellent experiences in hospitals in other places in the world, in India, Costa Rica, Mexico, Where I got excellent, quick service and a very reasonable (read cheap) price. And yet our for-profit medical industry constantly rails against how bad the medical systems are outside of the US. The people who believe this are mostly those who have not been outside the US ever. Our bumpkin-proletariat is convinced that they have it so much better than the rest of the world. I think this is a result of the ‘Big Lie’ perpetrated by the ads and agitprop of our pro-profit health-care industry. If you don’t know any better, you fall for their lies.

In 2004, I watched the first Bush-Kerry debate. In it, Bush stated that the US had the best health care system in the world. I waited for Kerry’s rebuttal. Then Kerry did it.

HE AGREED WITH BUSH!

Kerry and Bush both said that the US system was the best in the world. OMG! WTF! At that point, I realized that there was no hope for the US health care system. None at all, as long as the ruling class and children of the privileged received the best of care while the rest of the US got the leftovers. These people were too out-of-touch with the real world to even hold and intelligent conversation about health care.

I need some dental work. A few teeth are simply wearing down with age. So, guess where I get my dental work done next month? Well you can bet it ain’t gonna be in the USA."

http://dwightworker.com/2011/01/971/#more-971

[kenny blankenship]

1. Bush stated that the US had the best health care system in the world.

I waited for Kerry’s rebuttal. Then Kerry did it.

HE AGREED WITH BUSH!

That was just his experience. He was speaking the truth as he understood it: the U.S. has the best health care that MILLIONAIRES -like the two of them- can buy. Kerry knows it because he can shop other countries, as well. Looking elsewhere probably wouldn't even occur to Bush. He'd just think of all of Father's friends from abroad - ailing dictators and generals - who come to the US for shelter and medicine when they get old and sick, and think There's no place like home.

Maybe we'd get further if we stopped picking our leaders from elite backgrounds and institutions. Next time, let's try.