Americans are retiring to Vietnam • Hacker News Board

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#251

Post by asdff » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 7:50 AM UTC

CPLX wrote: post #232

quaquaqua1 wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Will you be living next to Mayo Clinic when you have your heart attack, or something closer to the median hospital in the region?

Like the Cleveland Clinic, Northwesten Medical, or University of Michigan? There’s some confused thinking in this thread I think.

Of course there are institutions in the midwest. Some of the best universities are in the midwest. But practically if you lived in, say Lodi, it would take you over an hour to drive to the cleveland clinic main campus to see a specialist. That might be fine while you are 35 but untenable when you are 85.

The services are there but the density is low and the sprawl is wide in the midwest, and your only option is the car or to be entirely dependent on a relative to shuttle you to your appointments as public transit is anemic to non existent outside of chicago.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#252

Post by fxtentacle » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 12:33 PM UTC

coconut_crab wrote: post #188

CapricornNoble wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>>Oh and I've also heard a lot of stories about Vietnamese women becoming rather disenchanted of hip cool American backpackers, the latter of which presumably read articles like this and decided to try their luck. The backpacker area of Saigon is considered more like a slum that you try to avoid at night. Hanoi's French Quarter is the same way, and I'm glad the local women are hip to the game. They'll ask you "where…

>>>>>>One other thing that the article dangerously omits is the fact that food hygiene and/or safety testing is still pretty much non-existent even in the richest parts of Vietnam. >>>I've also spent about 6 months in Vietnam, cumulatively over 6 six trips. I've gotten brutally sick on 5 of those 6 visits. The lack of sanitation is the #1 reason I don't think I could EVER live there, no matter how much money I had. Y…

I don't think so.

"Food poisoning killed 22 people and hospitalized 3,147 others in Vietnam during the first 11 months of this year, official government data shows."

https://e.vnexpress.net/news/news/food-poisoning-deaths-doub...

That's the government data where they count only registered Vietnamese residents.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#253

Post by keiferski » Sat, Dec 28, 2019, 1:01 PM UTC

asdff wrote: post #250

keiferski wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some of the best medical centers in the country are in the Midwest...

Very true. But for every Cleveland Clinic there are a hundred other midwestern cities that lack a similar tier institution, but you might have three similar institutions to CC in NYC or on the west coast to choose from. Having to drive over an hour to see your specialist while you are senile is not ideal, but is a reality for a lot of people in the midwest by virtue of the sprawl and low density of services.

Have you commuted or driven around NYC or LA? Unless you live in the same neighborhood, your commute to the hospital is already going to be 30-60 minutes. Not to mention that of the top hundred hospitals in the country, only a handful are in NYC or LA.

One could make an argument that living in rural areas is worse than urban ones when it comes to access to top medical care, but that has nothing to do with the NYC/LA vs. the rest of the country.

Re: Americans are retiring to Vietnam

#254

Post by nodemaker » Sun, Dec 29, 2019, 5:37 AM UTC

pdonis wrote: post #248

nodemaker wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well then there will be a variable cost depending on the treatment you need and the prices that the market decides. No amount of money in your bank could give you any financial security as you are basically one accident, surgery or even treatment away from bankruptcy. It could be that this one pill you need is suddenly priced at a million dollars a pill and you cant survive anymore. (Hypothetically can happen in a to…

> It could be that this one pill you need is suddenly priced at a million dollars a pill and you cant survive anymore. (Hypothetically can happen in a totally free market). No, it can't, because in a totally free market nobody would have monopoly rights to produce particular drugs or provide particular treatments, so if one provider tried to charge a price nobody who needed the treatment could afford, they would go o…

> so if one provider tried to charge a price nobody who needed the treatment could afford, they would go out of business

Lets be realistic here. What happens is that most drugs are either actually manufactured overseas or at least can be shipped from overseas for pennies. However due to regulations and lobbying drug companies charge really high prices for the same drugs and they make sure it is illegal to import those drugs. In case the government itself was paying for these drugs it would be much harder for the companies to game the system like this and an individual would be protected from such predatory practices.

> So either we keep paying more and more taxes as a higher and higher percentage of people have the illness, to the point where we are just as badly off as if we each paid our own costs individually,

This is not true if you observe the tax rates in any countries with government funded healthcare. The taxes more or less remain the same but of course there are differences in the healthcare budget.

> This scheme also ignores the possibility of making the treatments cheaper.

Once again the healthcare costs in the US have actually risen quite significantly under the private system.

> This is not the obvious truth you appear to think it is. It is an extremely strong claim which is not at all clearly established by actual historical evidence.

Police and education it already is true even in the US. Even pension has significant regulation. The only reason healthcare is not is aggressive lobbying by private companies.