A Soviet emigre doctor gets a call from the Medicaid office. “You’ve been billing us for weekly house calls to Mr.Ivanov for the last six months. Haven’t you noticed that Mr.Ivanov has passed away?”

“Sure I noticed! He was my favorite patient, I visit him at cemetery.”

What happened to a Brighton Beach prostitute who had an appendectomy
performed by a Soviet emigre surgeon?

He sewed up the wrong hole, so now she’s making money on the side

The Vancouver [British Columbia] Sun, Thursday, 18 March 1993, page A13 lead headline “United States”

“Hospital costs prove 40% less in Canada
by Daniel Haney, AP Science writer

Washington -
Hospitals cost almost 40 per cent more in the United States than in Canada, largely because [...]

U.S. hospitals are more expensive, in part, because the cases they treat are 14 percent more complex. [Dr. Donald] Redelmeier, of Wellesley Hospital in Toronto, writing in the New England Journal of Medicine] said this reflects social differences between the two countries.

“Frostbite of the nose is not as expensive to treat as a shotgun wound to the belly.” he said.