Gary,

I just remembered that the last time I was in Aruba, my Uncle broke his wrist and had experience with there Health care system.

My Uncle jumped off a rock, landed funny and broke his wrist in more then one place. We drove 45 minutes to the only hospital on the island. All three of us went to the emergency room and waited.

Were you treated in a timely manner? Yes, but citizens were considered before foreigners. Although, I'm sure a life threatening illness would have been taken first. It seemed that everyone in the emergency room was there for scrapes, burns or a broken bone. There was a small child not feeling well--obviously sick, he went first. More then one person came in really bruised up from the "Tunnel of Love" LOL...Funny, my Uncle and Dad were born in Aruba and I've been to Aruba several times and none of us had heard about the "Tunnel of Love" but it wasn't kind to men.

Was your pain managed well? The bone was set, cast put on, surgery was recommended but could wait until we were back in the States, pain pills prescribed. Doctor said a hundred bucks would do...we gave it and he put it in his pocket. We left. When we got back to the states my Uncle had to have the arm operated like they told us.

We have very good friends who live in Aruba, they are not exactly poor. Where do they go for the basics? They get treated in Aruba. Where do they go for any major illness? The United States...I know they've been to NY, Florida and Europe. In Europe our friends are from the Netherlands one of the founding members of the E.U., so I don't know how health care works for them. Well, the husband was from the U.S. and his wife was from the Netherlands..I suppose they had the best of both worlds. Just a long plane ride.

I remember the hospital looking very old and deserted compared to ours. We saw one very tired looking doctor and two very young interns from Holland. They were very nice, but I wouldn't want to be treated for cancer there...at least at that time in 2002.