Homies

We have been homebodies for the past few days. Kelly's back pain was so bad that we almost went to the hospital. Gradually it is loosening up so it looks like we won't have to do that - we hope. I learned a lot about the Argentine health care system in the process.

Healthcare is free to all here but the national system is overburdened in many ways. There is a longstanding double standard of private hospitals that cater to the richer Argentines and many of the foreign population - Hospital Britanico, Hospital Aleman, Hospital Italiano, Hospital Clinica Y Maternidad Suizo, and etc. Per my browsing of various Argentine and expatriate news groups, most Americans here are much happier with the Argentine healthcare system than the US. (This is not unreasonable since most studies show the US ranks as low as you can go in terms of what your get for what you pay - the US system is the poster child of why freemarket/profit driven healthcare is a terrible way to deliver healthcare to a population).

In Argentina, people who can, go back and forth between the private and public healthcare systems (a good model for the US). With the private system here, you are given a bill up front and you decide if you can pay it. The private healthcare system here is much less expensive than in the US and there are also a number of HMO type health plans that are available, some of which rank higher than any US HMOs. The general agreement is that if you are truly ill and need complicated services, you are better off in the private system. However, there can be a shortage of beds in the private system so that you end up in the public system by default. Because of this, some expats here carry insurance to fly them back to the US or wherever, if they are extremely ill and cannot get a bed in a private hospital. (If you can pay, there are plans that let you choose where you want to go regardless of medical necessity.) Some of the bed shortage is due to marketing Argentine surgery services to those in other countries. Some insurance companies will even discount co-pays if you come here to have a surgical procedure done.




In the meantime, I have been taking a crayon coloring class.



Yesterday, MB went to the Recoleta cemetery where Evita Peron is buried.

I spent the day today figuring out the subway - 20 cents will get you almost anywhere in the city in a few minutes. I went to the botanic gardens which should be known as the feline gardens. There are cats everywhere -same in Recoleta cemetery per MB. People take care of the cats and no one seems to get upset if they roll a baby in a stroller into the park and a cat gets in.

There was a demonstration downtown as I was coming home. One thing that surprised me was that the demonstrators were setting off huge firecrackers - as loud as the loudest you hear at a 4th of July display. I thought there was a bombing but no one else including the police seemed to even notice this. Fireworks seem to be an accepted part of everyday BA life.