CaptHaddock

Omeprazole (Prilosec) 20 mg is still the standard treatment for acid reflux, as far as I know.  Available at Boots for ฿90 for 14 tablets, but all drug stores carry it.  It has worked for me for 20 years.

Thanks for the alert.  It was a very good presentation.

tropo, on 2012-05-21 00:04:06, said:

Shrimp and squid have high levels of cholesterol, but what's wrong with crab and shellfish?  I thought they were part of what makes the Japanese diet so healthy.

There is too much comparison of apples to oranges in this discussion.  The OP compares costs in "Thailand" to "America."  But costs in both countries vary enormously depending on the area.  Also, it's necessary to make adjustments for differences in quality, what economists call "hedonic" adjustments.  In addition, you have to factor in cost of intangibles such as the risks covered by various kinds of insurances.  Liabilty and health care risks are much lower in Thailand than anywhere in the US.

I retired from Manhattan to Bangkok expecting my actual costs here to be about 25% less.  So far, excluding one-time setup costs here and travel, that is about what we are experiencing.  That's comparing our actual expenses for the same three month period in each city.  However, at that time we were covered by health insurance provided by my employer which would have cost me $1000/month if I had to provide it for myself as I would have had to do after retirement.  

Once you adjust for hedonic factors, our life in Bangkok looks even better.  Our apartment here is comparable in quality to our NYC place but is twice the size and costs one third less.  Both buildings include staff and a swimming pool.  Both are adjacent to public transportation (the Broadway express line in Manhattan and the Silom BTS line here.)  In NYC I would occasionally rent a car to drive out of the city.  For the same price here I get a van and driver.

But the big difference doesn't show up in out-of-pocket comparisons.  Americans know that, even with health insurance, it is quite possible to go bankrupt in America through health care costs.  Indeed, medical costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US.
Can't really happen here, even if we self-insure.  That's a huge difference.  I recently went to an orthopedist at St. Louis Hospital (without waiting and without an appt.  Orthos are hard to see in NYC.) and got some X-rays all for a total of about $52 including the prescription drugs.  In NYC, without insurance, it would probably have been $500, but could have been more.

Now I realize that if I were willing to live in Atlanta or Minneapolis life would also be much cheaper than in Bangkok, but I find life more interesting here.

scotinsiam, on 2012-05-15 18:57:46, said:

Pretty silly idea.  Of what use was the military in the 2008 financial crisis?