Path: ccsf.homeunix.org!ccsf.homeunix.org!news1.wakwak.com!nf1.xephion.ne.jp!onion.ish.org!news.daionet.gr.jp!news.yamada.gr.jp!newsfeed.media.kyoto-u.ac.jp!newsfeed.icl.net!newsfeed.freenet.de!solnet.ch!solnet.ch!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!not-for-mail From: "John W." Newsgroups: fj.life.in-japan Subject: Re: American Medical "Care" Date: Wed, 21 Jul 2004 07:37:51 -0500 Lines: 58 Message-ID: <40FE639F.3000504@yahoo.com> References: <068jf01sj2b7odt3kq363pnm910e64jvik@4ax.com> <2m64j7Fj5gmdU1@uni-berlin.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Trace: news.uni-berlin.de wwv8US4SQUufC3whtkxAugEl2N3NmmTHvLoA6ipuAC6pmnnClu User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Win 9x 4.90; en-US; rv:1.0.2) Gecko/20021120 Netscape/7.01 X-Accept-Language: ja,en Xref: ccsf.homeunix.org fj.life.in-japan:15671 mtfester@netMAPSONscape.net wrote: > Ryan Ginstrom wrote: > >>Michael Cash wrote: >> >>>This is from an e-mail from my mother. Kim is my sister. >> > >>Like Mike Fester said, the US medical-care system is truly great if you have >>money. If you don't, you'd be better off in Cuba > > > Not really. > > >>or even Japan. > > > Probably. > > The US actually offers pretty good services in the form of clinics and > various forms of care. The worst case is if you're middle class, where > you don't qualify for the freebies, and can't afford the best. > Somewhat true in my experience, but a lot depends on where you are and what insurance you have. > >>When my wife became pregnant, I saw very clearly how the line was divided >>between those with money, and those without. I decided at that time to make >>sure I was on the "with" side of the line from that moment on. Probably a >>big reason why I quit grad school to translate full time. > > > My wife had a baby in Japan and one in the US. In Japan, they kept her > in the hospital for about a week, and wouldn't let anyone touch the > baby (until I insisted) and then wouldn't let it back in with the other > babies. > My sister in law (Japanese) was particularly frustrated that after the birth of her second child she had to go through classes and stuff on how to care for the baby. I guess they have to fill the time somehow. > In the US, they kicked her out the day after the baby was born. > Mine was in 48 hours. Could have stayed more if she paid for it. > She figures something in between would be better. > Probably so. The US does a lot more stuff as outpatient surgery than in Japan. I've known people who had heart bypass surgery and were out within a week; in Japan you'd probably be in critical care without a clue why you needed to have heart surgery since you came in with a sprained ankle. John W.