dddave

Sorry I can not cite the source but I remember reading this past year that prices in Bangkok's leading private hospitals had increased by more than 100% in the past 10 years.

The truly obscene prices US pharma is allowed to charge for medicines protected by patent is a racket like no other. Pharma channels money into the FDA and Congress in so many ways that there is virtually no chance they will ever be reigned in. Meanwhile, as you said, those unable to afford $1000 each medication doses are forced to either buy smuggled and frequently counterfeit versions produced in other countries or travel themselves to other countries for treatment. Meanwhile, health insurance costs are sky high partly as a result of being forced to cover such outrageously priced medications.

I have no doubt that there are a multitude of herbal and traditional medicines that have medicinal merit. The sad fact is that there is limited profit in sourcing, producing and distributing them because no patent exclusivity. This means that the very detailed and expensive clinical trials needed to legitimize a medication don't get funded and don't get done. It's Frustrating that the US FDA spends billions subsidizing the big pharma industries yet does little to fund such clinical trials of perhaps useful herbal & traditional medications.

I can't help but point out that when any national government gets involved in the art's, government interference inevitably follows. When the US had the "National Endowment for the Arts", members of Congress would often grandstand with statements of outrage about some work of art that pushed the boundaries; as art is supposed to do. As it has always been and will always be: Governments and the art's do not play together well.

Worked ten+ years as an "OBC": basically an air courier out of Bangkok, four to six international flights a month. Of course, I had a multiple entry re-entry permit, but it still had to clear immigration every departure. Never once denied boarding because of computers not functioning. Delayed yes, denied never.

In 15 years of flying out of BKK literally hundreds of times, I have yet to be told: "Sorry, not today"

Amazing. Even when the cops do a decent job finding and arresting a criminal, the bashing brigade just have to spew their endless ridicule, repeating the same trite banalities.

Indeed. Always faster. It has never taken me more than 20 minutes. Same re-entry permits, single or multiple entry for the same price as CW. Currently open when departing flights are scheduled. It is located in the passport control area, after security.