Medical Insurance

Recently I read a Vietnam post about going to the hospital and this blogger (http://vuth-it.blogspot.com/2006/09/national-dayfull-problem.html) mentioned medical insurance.

My half-sister, who has only been in the States for about 3 years, gave me the impression that most people in Vietnam does not carry medical insurance. It is better to pay for it yourself. This does make sense.

In America, the cost of treating a patience is high because of 'additional' insurance that the doctor has to carry. This is a vicous cycle. Doctors in America needs to carry malpractice medical insurance in case they get sue by a patient (called medical negligence claims). For example, I don't feel good. I go to a doctor. He operates on me but the surgery did not go well or it is not a surgery that I need because he misdiagnose the illness. Now my have some kind of side effect from the surgery. I can hire a lawyer to sue the doctor. May be it's a kind of lawsuit that I can ask for $600,000 and I could win in court. If the doctor has malpractice insurance, the insurance company would pay me the $600,000. If the doctor did not have malpractice insurance and he has a a $300,000 house and $300,000 in the bank, I can take the monies in his bank account and his house if I win the lawsuit. The the doctor would be left with nothing. He might have to close his practice or start all over again. That's why doctors have to have malpractice insurance in America and premiums (the amount you pay on the insurance policy each month) are high. So the doctor pass that cost to the patient.

Night Blooming Cereus

It's been a HOT summer. Worried that one of my precious plant might burn from the sun, I moved it to a shady spot. It's not close to a water faucet, so I have to water the plant from afar - with a hose. One day, I decided to put some plant food in a watering can and carried it over to water the plant. Lo and behold - it had 2 dead blooms on it! I was so sad - I missed the blooms.
My family loves plants. We have all kind of strange plants. Most of them are too exotic for the climate that I live in. I usually put these tropical plants in containers and move them into my sunroom in the winter time. About 3 years ago, I was over at my cousin, she had some kind of cuttings in water. I asked her what it was, she didn't know but said she got it from her mom. Asked me if I wanted it. Of course, it's a plant, I want it. Took it home, plant it. Didn't know what it was (name or anything) or how to care for it. A year later, a friend of mine, a master gardener, was over for lunch - I asked her about the plant. She told me it was called a 'Passalong' plant, because so many people take cuttings from it. She gave me the technical name for it too. I looked it up on the Internet and was so excited to read about the flower. Cool! Flowers the size of a dinner plate.
Three years later, it bloomed and I missed it.
Well, the gods were kind to me. 3 weeks ago, I went outside to visit my Night Blooming Cereus and saw buds! This week, it awarded me with 4 flowers. The fragrance was unbelievable.

I stayed up late to watch it bloomed. My mother told me that my great grandmother use to have a big ol' tree at her house in Hanoi. They would have about 80 blooms on it. It's a rare occasions for farmers to stay up late, but they did for these 80 blooms.
I think the Vietnamese name for this flower is Hoa Thanh Long. There are certain species with fruits - Dragonfruit. I don't think the one I have will fruit. My cactus leaves are flat.
Stay tune... next month... Plumeria blooms!