Links for you. Science:
How not to measure scientific productivity
Restructuring the Biomedical Research Laboratory (probably will have more to say about this; I told you NIH had to move in the research center direction)
Turning grief into action: Moms and antibiotic misuse
From 250 million years of repression, a wonderland of hats
What Is Wrong With Academia?
Other:
Unemployment (funny, in a sick way)
Now that we've killed Osama bin Laden, let's kill oil
SUBSTITUTE GOODS
The Philadelphia Orchestra's Unfortunate Bankruptcy Filing (never let anyone from corporate U.S. run anything. Ever).
Republicans say torture led U.S. to bin Laden. Facts say otherwise.
The Doctor is in . . . Bangkok (not sure I agree, but it does put 'outsourcing' in perspective)
Oh Yeah: Crowding Out Has Been a Huge Problem
Why education suffers
- Log in to post comments
I had a hernia operation 2 years ago in Thailand. Wonderful experience, as much as any operation can be, and half the price of my insurance deductible even with a private room and no waiting time (time from walking in the door to walking out with my initial consulation and exam, scheduling the operation -- for 3 days late -- was 1&1/2 hours). For less than the price of an operation in the USA, they could pay for a first class plane ticket, a month in a nice hotel, all meals, and the operation, and have money left over. It's even more so for more exspensive operations. A friend of mine had a hip replacement last year in the USA paid for by Medicare. He saw the bills and it totalled a little over $100,000. The same operation in Thailand, by excellent doctors, is $12,000. You could be flown first class (you wouldn't and shouldn't be, but you could) and put up for months and months in a nice hotel with a full time nurse to recover from the operation for far less than half the price of the operation in the USA.
There's lots of money to be saved on elective surgeries in this way.
Doctor training is excellent there, with excellent hospitals in Bangkok and Chiang Mai (and of course other countries: even the UK is the scene of medical tourism due to their lower prices). Dentistry is also cheaper and excellent. If you need any significant amount of dental work (say a crown and a bridge or a single dental implant; or a few crowns and fillings) you can save enough to fly to Thailand and stay for a month -- have a nice vacation. Appointments are easy to get and the care is fantastic.