That hospital stay was in Singapore, not Indonesia (where he got told to take a taxi to the hospital, rather than 'wait' for an ambulance, and that the surgeons felt that he needed urgent surgery, but there was no-one around that night, and there was a holiday tomorrow, so 'day after tomorrow... maybe').

so glad somebody gets it

In Singapore, with first-rate hospitals, and the highest cost of living in the world? That's not even a little surprising.

> the highest cost of living in the world

Singapore is not THAT expensive. Yes, it's first-rate, but not even close to highest COL[1]

[1] https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?cou...

Cost of living is complicated and lifestyle-dependent, and living in the city core vs. the suburbs makes a huge difference in most places. According to Forbes and The Economist, Singapore is #1. San Francisco may have laughably-high rents, but the cost of consumer goods, food, and many other things is far cheaper in San Francisco than in Singapore, for example, and it heavily skews the results.

Singapore is a "top 10" city by any metric and that was the main point.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2018/03/19/the-ci... https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2017/03/21/measurin... https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/most-expensive-cities-...

I see. That makes more sense now.