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Nell Burger Kirst, a 4th year medical student at the University of Michigan, tells a memorable and important story in the March 31st New York Times: Comforter and Comforted relates the story of a person who is called to be a "care giver." Little is written about this important human subspecies, yet they are the substructure of the entire health care system. Some are unlikely candidates.
Please read Nell's vignette. It's a keeper!
My pulse kicked into overdrive when I read the subject line of a recent e-mail from a friend: “Bad News.”
The cost of medical and dental care in the U.S. is outrageous. A growing number of un- or underinsured Americans are traveling abroad for surgical care. They can save significant amounts of money and receive appropriate and skillful care in Mexico, Central America, Asia and Europe. There have been a number of articles in the NY Times about this in the last few years.
"The most recent described a patient who traveled to Costa Rica for hernia surgery. The patient described is what’s known in the health care world as a “medical tourist.” No longer covered under his former employer’s insurance and too young to qualify for Medicare, his a private health insurance policy has a steep $10,000 deductible. Not wanting to spend all of that on the $14,000 his operation would have cost in the U.S., he paid only $3,900 in hospital and doctor’s bills in Costa Rica. Ultimately he decided on San José, Costa Rica, where just a week or so after the outpatient procedure and initial recovery, he and his wife were sightseeing throughout the country, then relaxing at a lush resort. He was home four weeks later, with no complications. The total outlay including medical care, travel, hotel and incidentals was well below the $10,000 out of pocket he would have paid in the U.S.
This article lists resources for those who wish to save money on expensive procedures in the States.
The day after I read this article, I saw a patient who told me of a friend who traveled to Costa Rica for dental surgery. I asked him to get the details and the next day received this email (reprinted with the author's permission):
I just got back last night and everything went very well. The dental work was better, yes better, than work I got here. The place i went is called dentalcostarica.com and they have specialists who know what they are doing. I went for 3 implants and 3 crowns, and received one implant and 5 crowns. The good dentist intuitively thought of a way to save two teeth (roots). He also replaced one amagom filling with resin and he capped a broken wisdom tooth. the extra crown was added to replace one oversized crown with 2. In addition they covered discolored portion of six teeth where gums had receded. Total fee: are you sitting? Here in the U.S. three crowns and three implants: $12,000. All the forgoing in Costa Rica: $2,850. Even with 45 bucks a night for room and breakfast (very clean and modern, cable tv, dsl internet, near San Pedro Mall) - $585 and $435 for airfare I am under $4k. Wow.! It was a good experience, i got lots of rest and recreation too.
Mahatma Gandhi’s steel-framed spectacles, his pair of sandals, bowl, plate and pocket watch recently brought $1.8 million at auction. Vijay Mallya, the Indian liquor and airline magnate, announced that he had purchased the items with plans to return them to India. How ironic that these few items owned by a man who had repudiated materialism commanded such an exhorbitant price!
Brian T. Maurer has practiced pediatrics as a Physician Assistant for thirty years. His "Marginal Notes" column appears periodically in the Cell2Soul Blog. The title "Marginal Notes" is taken from a quote by Henry David Thoreau: "I love a broad margin to my life."
From NY Times article: Their baby was born blind and deaf and is severely brain damaged. Now, Alina and her husband, Ionut, despair that the bribes they paid were not enough to prevent the negligence that they say harmed their son, Sebastian. “Doctors are so used to getting bribes in Romania that you now have to pay more in order to even get their attention,” she said. See Permalink for full article .
Dr. Adela Salceanu, a psychiatrist and antibribery advocate, recalled that one friend, a 42-year-old lawyer, recently broke two legs in a basketball game and was taken to a hospital for surgery. When he did not offer money to the orthopedic surgeon on duty, his procedure was postponed for a week; he finally received treatment, but only after paying the doctor an extra $510.
We have our problems in the U.S., but not as bad as Romania. Read this article. It will break your heart.
See Permalink for full article .
"Go back to China," a woman yells from her car window as I cross the street. Her White Whispers soak in and echo. Drench my body like the agony of song." So begins a powerfully moving "autoethnography" by Karen Lee from Vancouver, B.C. Download White Whispers
This essay is particularly timely since some newspapers (NY Post for one) have published racist cartoons aimed at President Obama.
Karen V. Lee is a Faculty Advisor and co-founder of the Teaching Initiative for Music Educators cohort (TIME) at the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B. C, Canada Her research interests include issues of musician/teacher identity, music/teacher education, performance ethnography, women’s life histories, autoethnography, writing practices, and arts-based approaches to qualitative research. Her doctoral dissertation, was a book of short stories, titled Riffs of Change: Musicians Becoming Music Educators. She is a musician, writer, music educator, and researcher. Currently, she teaches undergraduate and graduate students in traditional and online contexts at the university. You may contact her at: Email
