[Swiftwater Gazette] Bananas, Ya'all

[Brad Haslett]

Herb,

There's a tremendous opportunity here for someone (with more
horsepower than me). The wife of my best friend of 30 years was
diagnosed with lung cancer last year.  He's self insured and the first
two days of diagnosis and treatment was over $20K. They flew back to
China (where she's from)  and his wife has remained there for the last
year.  He pays out of pocket and it's expensive, but, Mae's doing OK
and my buddy hasn't gone broke. Costa Rica already has a good health
care system, but like all public systems, there's a long wait for
everything.  One of my wife's friends who immigrated to Canada instead
of the US has recently come down with arthritis.  It is a 9-month wait
to see a specialist. If someone developed a legitimate insurance
program, based offshore (and outside US law), I'd gladly pay into a
high-deductible program (say the first $25K is on you), where I knew
if one of my family members needed treatment or surgery ASAP, we could
get access to US doctors at a clinic run to US standards.  Costa Rica
is pretty close.  Hmmmmm. No one ever talks about the Canadian doctors
who have already immigrated to the US to escape the Canadian system.
What's one more move further South?  Look at the bright side - it will
be good for the airline business.

Every attempt at centralized economic planning in the history of
mankind has failed!  EVERY - SINGLE - ONE!

Brad

On 12/23/09, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> So, I wonder if ObamaCare will pay for flights to other countries when
> hospitals in the US start shutting it down... Have they factored this into
> their "budget neutral" plan? Maybe we'll have to go pay 10 years for 3 years
> use, instead of 10 years for 6.
>
>
> On Tue, Dec 22, 2009 at 9:47 PM, Brad Haslett <flybrad at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Bought a new uniform blouse today - the old one must have shrunken.
>> Surely, I haven't gained weight.  I've only worn a blouse in the last
>> ten years for funerals of co-workers but the Asian countries don't
>> recognize leather jackets as an official uniform item (and they're
>> really big on uniforms). Anyway, as long as I was in that part of
>> town, I thought it would be a good time to call for a quorum of the
>> founding fathers of the "Memphis Center for Peace and Prosperity".
>> The usual suspects showed on short notice.
>>
>> One of my buddies has been working on building his business as a
>> manufacturers rep for specialty chemical sales for the last decade
>> while his wife worked part time as a surgical nurse. She went to work
>> full time about a year ago and he cut back on his hours to play Mr.
>> Mom. More recently, she took over as manager for the private surgical
>> center she works for (another big raise).  So my buddy asks me what I
>> know about Costa Rica.  I've been all over South America but nowhere
>> in Central America.  That raised the obvious question; why do you ask?
>>
>> The surgeons at his wife's clinic are looking at developing a clinic
>> in another country.  They can easily commute to Central America and
>> work week on-week off.  For the return-on-investment in their current
>> clinic at Medicare rates, they'd be better off charging retail and
>> working half as much. They are not blowing smoke.  You can't offer to
>> pay the difference between authorized government rates and retail
>> rates to get the surgery you want.  It is illegal.  These guys are
>> just looking down the road and planning accordingly.  Isn't the free
>> market a wonderful thing?
>>
>> Anyway, my buddy's wife is one of those "Southern" gals with big hair,
>> a sweet syrupy drawl, and smart as hell. If it can be done, she'll
>> make it happen.
>>
>> It will happen. The Canadians need somewhere to go for their health care.
>>
>> Brad
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>