It started with the sudden, sickening sensation that my body was spinning while I was driving in Seattle. The horizon, that line in the distance we depend upon to be level, tilted thirty degrees to the right. My brain insisted that my body was rotating clockwise, and fast. I knew that if I didn’t pull over immediately, I would crash into another car—or worse. Once stopped, I crawled into the passenger seat as Diane ran around to the driver’s side, in traffic on a busy street. She took us back to our Airbnb. That was my first experience with vertigo. All this followed a 23-hour journey from Chiang Mai to Seattle four months ago.

   I decided not to see a doctor in Seattle. Maybe that wasn’t the best decision of my life, but thankfully, it worked out in the end. Besides, I needed to hold on to my man-card. We men don’t tend to see a doctor unless we lose a limb or something. That decision, along with what happened in Chiang Mai four months later, added to my doubts about what Americans say about their healthcare system.

   I do hear criticism about healthcare in the US, but it is nearly always followed by the ubiquitous phrase, “but the healthcare system in the US is the best in the world.” It is usually said in such a manner that those words are irrefutable. But is it the best? Really? You can decide at the end of this article.