"Universal" health care

Our increasingly integrated world is witness to the (not always) free flow of ideas, goods, people, and now health care. Increased transparency, disparity in costs, and the compelling need of health care makes this development inevitable. One of the concerns about free trade of goods and services has been falling wages in advanced industrial countries. At the same time, however, wages should rise in developing countries. It's going to take awhile to balance the world economic system out. I think one of the important roles left to the nation-state is to make this transition occur smoothly. Furthermore, will better medical service reach the rest of  the populace in medical tourist locations, like Thailand or India? On net, I think this is a positive development. It's definitely in the One World direction. Optimistically, this may push reform on both sides; rich countries will have to reform their costly systems, and people in developing countries will demand better health delivery when they see what top flight care looks like. I might be too pollyanna-ish. Of course, what if giant first world health care providers start buying up foreign providers? We'll see.

From the Economist, Operating profit.

"But costs have long been much higher in America than in poor countries, so this alone does not explain the new exodus. Two other factors are now at work. One is that the quality at the best hospitals in Asia and Latin America is now at least as good as it is at many hospitals in rich countries. The second, more worrying, factor is that America’s already imperfect insurance safety net is fraying."