Local hospitals healthier than in LA

Just in case some of you foreigners (Americans) don't have universal healthcare coverage, and sweat when you contemplate paying for sudden illnesses, I feel duty-bound as a fellow human being to share the good news.

Beijing hospitals are fully equipped to cure your foreign hide. True, some resemble inner-city YMCAs more than health centers, but most put your average Western hospital to shame. Witness Beijing's Wuzhou Women's Hospital.

My experience with American healthcare taught me to put off a minor complaint until it became major. So the pollution particle lodged in my eye had a good four days to turn from an itch to a burning, blinding threat to my vision.