Regarding the American hospitals/clinics in Dubai and elsewhere overseas: I think it's important that we think about what this might mean to our own health care system in the future and what it says about our present system. Our system is financially unwieldy, but the most fundamental role of any health care system is to provide health care. Viruses, bacteria, and prions make no distinction between the employed and the unemployed. Public health is a necessity, not only for the poor, but for all of us, and not only for rampantly contagious nightmare illnesses like cholera and ebola, but for inherited diseases as well. When an odd, hard to diagnose, and mysteriously occurring disease emerges, it is overwhelmingly the world's public health community--through government grants and university programs--that does the detective work of finding its cause and alerting the public. A public health care system that is strangled in politics and fund-grubbing is not one that functions well. Again, I strongly recommend D.T. Max's book, "The Family That Couldn't Sleep" (Random House US/Portobello Books UK) for a crystal clear look at how this works.