worst: federated states of micronesia—no healthcare to speak of. the recommended procedure for anything worse than a head cold is “fly yourself to guam”.

best: taiwan.

Best: broke my tooth in a water park related accident while in north Thailand. Went to the dentist and they fixed it like nothing happened in a few minutes for about $30 US.

Got an eye infection at the village by Machu Picchu the night before going to the site. Basically didn’t sleep. Spent a lot of time trying to find out what the options I had were, and it was really looking like I’d have to go back to Cusco (and this was when the train wasn’t running, so taxi…). But once the sun was up I was able to contact the towns medical thing (which did not physically exist where google maps said) and they sent and EMT, who checked it out, and gave me eye drops that worked immediately, and bam, when to Machu Picchu.

Took my friend with Covid to the hospital in Iquitos, Peru. They didn’t have any oxygen, or anything else for that matter. Took him home in a casket. Kind people, but zero resources. Plenty of their doctors went home in caskets, too.

It’s been a few years, but Malaysia was hands-down the best for me. Had a baby with major complications and transfusions for mom for under $3k. Hospitalized and medicated for Dengue for like $75 all-in. Specialist visits with neurologist and ortho trying to run down a shoulder issue for less than $300 all-in including MRI. No issues whatsoever with the care and loved the price. Plus, if you’re in pain, the docs are very liberal with some very effective pain-killers. :-) After 8 years there with a family of 5 and then 6 kids, I paid far less in cash for medical expenses than I would have paid in insurance premiums and deductables. Insurance just made no sense at all there except for the most catastrohic of cases. I rolled the medical dice and won big time there even with a large family.

Had a little fall and bumped my head while living in Shanghai. Turns out I fractured my skull and tore my dura membrane causing a CSF leak. I had private insurance so I went the nicest route, new international hospital for treatment over the next 3 months. They could not find the dura membrane tear location that was causing the CSF leak. After 3 months of circles, they sent me the Military hospital in Shanghai because my little fall caused an injury normally seen in combat. 5 minutes with the Military hospital doctor and they were checking me in and telling me to call a loved one because they were going to go exploratory surgery on my skull to find the holes in the dura membrane. Hell no! I was not letting anyone cut open my skull and fish around looking for tiny holes. So I spent 5 days in the hospital fighting with the doctors to figure out a different solution. Turns out the solution was an emergency flight back to the U.S. for a ridiculously expensive surgery through my face holes because they quickly found the holes with a proper MRI and CT scan.

Speaking as an American getting healthcare in America… America has been the worse.

Worst USA Experience: blood loss. Refused to get into an ambulance because of $$$ so I took an Uber. Dropped in the parking lot when I lost conscious. Treated by doctors and nurses who all looked miserable (I don’t blame them so much as I blame their employer/ insurance companies). For minimal treatment I was still charged 5k post-insurance.

First trip to India, and I made the mistake of eating a samosa from the street. That’s a rookie mistake you’ll only make one time. Later that evening I was at my friend’s house, puking and shitting my guts out. I didn’t know which end of my body to point at the toilet. After everything finally evacuated I laid naked in the cold tile floor, my face in the lining of my stomach, and my friends announced that we were going to hospital. They picked me up off the floor, showered and dressed me, then carried me two blocks to the local doctors’s office. He saw me immediately and diagnosed food poisoning, of course. Incredulous of the quick disposition I asked, “but how do you know? Do you need blood tests?” to which he replied: “I looked at you!” Good enough. They gave me a shot of Zofran, which was life-changing, and a bag of fluids, which my body absorbed in minutes. Less than one hour later we were out the door. My friend paid the doctor’s fee, 800 rupees, about $10 at the time. The pharmacy gave me a bag of drugs for about $3.

In the US this would have been $3,000.

I had some fillings done in Argentina, the initial consultation was $6-7. The follow up visit he did 5 fillings for around $30, perhaps a bit less.

My sister had a small fall while hiking in Argentina. She had x-rays and otherwise just a cleaning of her cut and bandaging. The public hospital looked like something from a terror movie, but I’m pretty sure she wasn’t charged a penny. The staff were pleasant enough.

I broke my jaw in Croatia, well someone broke it for me. This required 4 visits or so, one of which the doctor accidentally scheduled on a day he was off, which in his defense was around the holidays. English was widespread in the country, but suprisingly it was a struggle at the hospital. I did not need surgery, but had my mouth banded shut for a month. I think I was all in for a little over $750 USD. I was pretty pleased with the care overall, and as a yank, I thought it was bargain. I went to the best reviewed hospital I could find, which was probably private which is likely relevant here.

I’m back in Argentina now to have the fillings put back in. Initial consult was quoted at $7.

I had terrible stomach flu while traveling in Dublin, felt like I had no choice but to schedule an appointment with a doctor. found a random one with good reviews, scheduled the next day, no wait time at all, and I think the total cost ended up being something like 50 euro for the 30 min consultation + maybe 5 euro (it was really really cheap) for the medicine he prescribed. this was without insurance so I think it was on the expensive side compared to other EU residents.

contrast that to my home country (US), I have really good expensive health insurance from my company. I had to schedule a few appointments to deal with a finger injury where I paid around $100 per visit (because I hadn’t met my deductible yet) for the privilege of sitting in the waiting room for 30 minutes, going into the exam room then waiting there for 30 min - 1 hour (my doctor later told me he was on an ER on call rotation and was constantly getting paged during office hours), doctor sees me for 5 minutes and says “yep that looks fine come back next month to take off the splint” (or whatever)… now imagine you don’t have insurance, I bet 90% of people just deal with the permanent finger damage rather than paying $500 or wahtever for this BS.

Egypt was terrible. Had to get a covid test to leave and the nurse shoved the sampler right up my nose to my cranium. Was extremely painful. My friend had the same experience

Hong-Kong was terrible for me. I had a sudden problem with my foot, many hours of waiting for the doc to say he has no idea what’s going on but he is sure it’ll go away with painkillers. Paid a couple hundred usd for that, painkillers didn’t help, came back again and the doctor prescribed more painkillers :)) they also didn’t work… wasted money for two appointments plus the pills. On the second appointment the doc suggested the only thing I can do for him to make any changes in his “treatment” is an mri for ~4000 usd. No thanks…

Best: Mexico City. I had a dental check-up and the lady gave me a mirror to hold so I could watch what she was doing while she explained things. Really interesting and also motivated me to floss more. Super professional and lovely experience.

Worst: Saigon, Vietnam. The hospital was fine but afterwards I had to get some prescribed medicine from the pharmacy downstairs. When I got there there was one old lady talking to the pharmacist so I lined up behind her and waited for 2 minutes. She was just about done when a tiny Vietnamese guy barged past me and started haranguing the pharmacist while she was still dealing with the old lady. Then 2 Vietnamese women joined and started doing the same thing (on the other side of the old lady). Soon there were about 20 people in the ‘queue’ all pushing past each other and giving no fucks about me. After about 20 minutes of waiting ‘in line’, sweating balls under the intense humidity, I said fuck it (out loud) and just pushed past everyone in front of me and slapped my prescription on the table which was instantly filled.

Most infuriating cultural practice next to the Chinese fondness for clearing their throat at any and every available moment.

Bangkok – wow. That hospital was like the future. I went to get a sexual health check as I was worried about something (don’t worry, we’re all good). The whole place was as clean as if it were new. I booked an appointment online and barely had to wait to get seen by a GP. And, get this, they had a mother-freakin’ STRING QUARTET playing in the lobby.

I can’t remember exactly but it was about $50 for the whole thing.

Best? I had to get a root canal in Poland. Out of pocket it cost $250 with X-rays. No language barrier as the doctor spoke English as well as Polish. Didn’t hurt a bit.

Worst? Anything in America. Even if you have insurance, expect to get raked over the coals and be thrown head first into bureaucracy. I broke my collarbone and it cost me $5000 with good insurance.

Without insurance it would have been $250,000