freakonomics 391 - advanced theory
(USA relevant -the rest of the English-speaking world has decent universal healthcare and may read along purely for entertainment value)
so my yank and dixie compatriots, class is now in session
So we established last class that health insurance is a scam for most people, rife with monopoly, abuse, and oppression. If you have a chronic condition then it can make sense, but if you're healthy, why pay $300 a month for the right to have a $5,000 deductible that covers 80% of a $80,000 procedure that leaves you owing $16,000 up front? That's a year you just paid $24,600 for something that could have been handled for under $1,000 abroad, cash down. What are flights worth? Another $1,200? You're out less than your premiums in one year.
So you're like me, you don't have health insurance- what are the risks, like really?
Three words- appendey feckn sitis.
Appendicitis that is. One word actually. Appendicitis is the risk.
Appendicitis. *ahem*
So wisdom has it that an ounce of prevention is a worth a pound of cure, the ratio might be even more extreme. What to do?
Medical tourism works great for stuff like dental reconstruction surgery, getting wisdom teeth pulled, or what-have you. But when appendicitis strikes, you have hours, not days, to get care, or you literally die. Dying is super expensive, not worth it at all.
So what's that freaky solution? What's that freakonomics TM solution my guy?
What do we do about this potentially live hand grenade implanted in our guts by the randomness of evolutionary wanderings?
Preventative medical tourism. Bam.
You wake up from anasthesia in a bathtub full of ice in a developing country, missing a bodily organ. You thank the folks and leave a generous tip on your way out.
That organ was your appendix. You are now in Thailand on a beach recovering with a beverage of your choice. Or Mexico. Or Canada, but it's cold, wherever, literally anywhere in the developed world, and much of the developing world, has better healthcare than the monopolized USA's health system.
You can never get appendicitis ever in your life, and now you're on vacation.
Godspeed!
