So the real question is why he wasn't interested in the socialized medicine?

Bingo. However, the problem is that often times it isn't that you don't "want" to wait, its that you "can't" wait.

I guess my point is that the system is pretty bad if you would rather travel to a 3rd world country for health care than wait for the free health care your government provides.

What on earth would the pound being a strong currency have to do with this?

Labor is cheap there, but do you want your family taken care of by cheap doctors?

To want to travel to a 3rd world country in order to receive medical care just means that the system has got to be screwed up.

Its like wanting to go from such an allegedly wonderful health care system in Canada to an allegedly horrible health care system in the US.

For the record I didn't pull up the story, so there isn't a way for me to know if it was cherry picked or not.

I never said our system was great. Just that the answers to our system so many people clamor for won't help.

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I'm not necessarily saying that England's system is perfect either, just that individual situations can lead to a variety of situations that anybody can spin and magnify into some macro-economic indicator.

And using hot words like third world country doesn't really mean anything. Just because it's third world, that doesn't mean there are not any facilities comparable in quality to anywhere else in the world. Rather, it just means those facilities are only accessible by the top few of those countries. Further, the strength of the pound is a significant issue... if the pound gains relative value over currency in india, then things will be cheaper there. That's a lot of the reason it's so cheap to buy stuff in china, because they deflate their currency. We outsource a lot of our low end and high end sectors to both india and china.

I also don't think it makes sense to do direct comparisons between american, indian and uk health systems. any understanding of the quality, with regard to wait time's or whatever, should take into consideration that we spend more than two times per capita on healthcare over the UK. A part of me has to wonder what healthcare in the USA would be like if we cut out half of the expenditures we do, or if the UK doubled theirs. This is the more relevant comparison. Cherry picked stories won't get us anywhere.

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Again, I didn't bring it up. I just remarked that the system isn't as perfect as some of the people on these forums like to pretend it is.

In that case I'll take a vacation to one next summer and report back to you.

It does mean that the odds are stacked against you for that.

Walking into the country doesn't automatically give you access to those exclusive places.

The pound is just a representative of wealth. If they make the ratio of pounds to wealth lower then the pound seems to increase in value, but then you end up getting paid less at your job because prices and wages are based around wealth not currency.

Its so cheap because they have so little wealth to their currency by comparision. But in the end you are just exchanging wealth for wealth it really isn't the reason stuff is cheaper there. Maybe a sliver of the reason, but nothing much.

I think a lot of the money we "spend on healthcare" is vomited senslessly by our ever-faithful and reliable government. Its not as simple as looking at a quote to see what we effectively spend.

And again, I didn't cherry pick anything.

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I didn't say you brought it up.
goody
Um, no it doesn't. It certainly means there will likely be more lower quality doctors there, but it's not like you're rolling the dice to see which doctor you go to when you're there. If you have the money, you will go to the best they have, which will likely be of similar quality and price as the USA for anything you might expect to go to the doctor for. Third World is a name we give to countries with struggling middle classes, but it does not mean they do not have any modern technology for foreigners who come there and the wealthy who live there.
Apparently 45k will get you in though. They had the choice of any other country in the world to go to, they didn't have to go to india. I'm sure they passes up many nice private doctors in non-third world country's to get there.
you assume the market reacts instantaneously to changes in inflation and the supply of money. Ratios of currency to wealth constantly fluctuate, particularly in china where they flood the market with currency to deflate it's value. Deflated currency discourages locals from importing and encourages non-locals to export. It's also why you are starting to see a flood of investment from foreign countries (particularly asia) into america right now... we've lost relative value compared to other nations, and the ratio to wealth hasn't yet corrected itself.
maybe a sliver, maybe not. All depends on what was going on in economies at the time, which I don't know about. The question is, as you say... if I take a dollar, what can I buy for it in the usa... if I take that dollar and convert it into the pound, can I buy the same thing, less, or more?

In any event we aren't really talking about anything meaningful here, just a cherry story (and yes, I know, you didn't pick it, although you did pick it as the object of discussion)

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"Dissent is the highest form of Patriotism." TJ

Thanks for pointing this out and the cost would hold true across the board for other government programs like public education.