Comments by "Marvin Fine" (@torontovoice1) on "I Paid My Entire Staff’s Hospital Bill" video.
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Well that was a very interesting video. I was very impressed with the building, it looked state of the art. When I saw your stuff in the cafeteria, I began salivating. Medical tourism of course is something that is done in many places all over the world, and there are reasons for people seeking out medical tourism. The main reason is cost, but it's not only cost. And I'll get into that at the moment. Let me just comment on this particular video first. All of the tests that were shown were simple off the shelf tests. These are generally done by technicians who need to spend about 6 months learning a particular skill and then they can perform all these tests. They're not able to interpret them, but they can certainly perform them and gather all the information. It's true that in most hospitals, and they don't run you through this executive battery of tests. But they do have for example private clinics in Canada they do a whole lot more than that, and give you video conferencing with a doctor as well as they have some way of jumping the queue in the terribly inefficient government-run health Care system. But it's not $200, it's more like three and a half thousand a year to join these clinics. But the other reason why medical tourism exists is based on specialties and expertise. Now you mentioned that the doctors there were trained in the UK and I have no doubt that that certainly plausible. But when you talk about cost, I think you have to put this in some perspective. All of the tests that were done in this hospital as I mentioned were very standard run of the mill tests. Then a doctor, literally any doctor could easily interpret these tests. I remember one of your employees mentioned that the doctor said she should drink more water. That was probably a function of her creatinine in the blood and her EFGR test. You don't need to be a physician to understand that, but most people don't. People shouldn't be blown away by aesthetics, fancy thick binder with numerous printouts that no one is going to read or understand. At the end of the day, a lot of what medicine is about, or good medicine is about health care as opposed to sick care. So going out and getting these types of routine diagnostics are extremely helpful because they'll explain to you if you're sugar is too high your cholesterol is too high your creatinine levels are bad bone density especially in the case of women and the risk of osteoporosis, and all of the other associated tests. Anyone can do a hearing test or an eye test as well, you can even do it yourself! But what if you get really sick and you need a very complex heart operation? Would you go there? And I think some of the other comments were that America, and I'm not an American but you alluded to America and several of your comments relate to America is a very litigious society. Lawyers wake up in the morning and they say who can I sue today? And because the cost of litigation is so high and there's often very little recovery and costs at the other end even when you win, there is a great incentive to make settlements which are routinely done, and incentivize litigants to pursue more claims. That's why you see people doing medical tourism at the Mayo clinic, the Cleveland clinic, etc which are number I think one and two on the Newsweek 100 best hospitals in the world. I didn't see Malaysia on any of these lists. Canada was on the list, solar Switzerland, and Israel. So I think when people need very complex operations, they look for countries where they can get reasonably good access, and a high level of skill. Of course you can strike Canada off the list, because unless you're going to be dead in the next 4 hours, you can hunker down assuming you're a Canadian citizen or resident and wait for a long time we're talking months and in some cases years if you need something that would not classify as an emergency or urgent. And certainly, as a Canadian I can very much relate to this entire topic. Would you pay 54% tax on your income and line up in a queue with people on welfare after paying millions of dollars in tax ? Do you think that's fair? Well I promise you the guy on welfare would say yes it is, the rich should pay. But generally speaking if you have more money you can drive a nicer car, living a nicer dwelling, and sit in the front of the plane instead of sardine class! So healthcare is a necessary requirement, especially when you get older. But I think when you look at this whole thing on a global basis, it paints a different picture. You have spoken many times about go where you're treated best. Please don't sue me for mentioning that if it's trademarked, but I think that's true. People do go where they're treated best. So let's talk about that! Would a doctor stay in Malaysia making bobcus, if he could go to the United States and make a half a million dollars a year even though he'd have to pay a hefty insurance premium for these nuisance litigants? The entire world is in competition with each other for skills, and money. What can you bring to our country? Are you going to invest money, or are you going to feel a particular need that we have where were short of doctors or nurses? Canada was completely stripped on a wholesale basis of nurses and doctors who were recruited to move to the United States. And they ain't coming back because they're making much more money and have better weather. If you've ever been to Canada you know what I'm talking about. So I think you have to look at this whole video with a little more equity and balance, and don't be misguided by a fancy binder, a modern facility, friendly staff, and a culinary smorgasbord which would tempt the appetite of pretty well anyone. Well done!
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