>>SNIP
>>>And I'm not inventing the price ratio. In 2005 we went there for a vacation, and had some dental work done, compared the prices here and it's really around 1:10.
>>
>>But then the medical establishment's standard FUD response is "but you never know what you're getting into there, compared to here".
>
>I know there better than here. The little contact we had with medical industry here is just incredible. Our daughter, then age 9, fell in the bathroom. She looked serious enough that we called 911, the guys came really fast and got her to the hospital - they were really great, all trained volunteers (however, we were billed later for the ride, not for their labor). At the hospital, we waited for more than an hour, with at least three nurses or whatever taking our data; they even had a computer on a cart... but then they took more or less the same data three times. And then eventually we got a doctor, who gave her about three minutes of examination in the corridor - using just his fingers and a stethoscope. The funniest thing of all is that he applied the stethoscope over her shirt. I know my wife had a couple of stethoscopes and always had problems finding a good place on the skin where the contact noise would be the least and even then the outside noise would be a problem. How
>did this guy hear anything in a corridor through a shirt is still a mystery. The bill for all that was over $160 - don't remember which part was for the 911 ride and which for the hospital.
>
>And of course, my employer was already going down at the time, and silently stopped paying the insurance a month before that. It's actually quite amazing that they couldn't add us to the insurance when I started - had to wait several months until the peddler came to negotiate the next round - but you don't have to wait a single day to get cut off, that's effective immediately.
>
>I know Serbia is a relatively poor country, and my parents' retirements aren't much, but they have no problems getting their medications or seeing a doctor. There's a small copayment, but they can afford it without breaking a sweat. They even had a doctor coming to regular visits about twice a week when it was needed. And there are private doctors, as well, if you want. And that's after the health and social security were ransacked by Miloshevich's goons for a decade.

Sorry to say it, but it's entirely because medical work is cheap in Serbia, and other similar places. The hospital that you described has shortage of doctors; almost every hospital has it, because it cannot afford to employ doctors, and it is not because of salary only.