Every place has its own healthcare system, with unique organizational structures and standards of care…some extremely good and easy, like Singapore, and some not so good or easy. My last assignment was a small town in Borneo (yes, the place that used to have head hunters!). There were good doctors there but it was up to me to find those that I could work and communicate with.



It's important for each of us to be fully informed of any medical conditions that we might have, what the side effects of medications that we are prescribed might be, what allergies we have and the genetic predispositions that we might have (like a parent with diabetes or certain cancers). It's also crucial to be very candid with a new doctor about one's medical history and such.

I wonder, though, has the "managed care" way of doing things resulted in patient cost savings – its original intent'I recently renewed my medical insurance policy. I was given 2 pricing options for the SAME coverage. One was for people who spend the majority of their time in the U.S. or live there and the other was for people who live and spend most of their time anywhere else in the world. No kidding – the U.S. coverage was 4 times as expensive as the non-US. 4 times!!Wow…no wonder healthcare costs in the US make international news.