Saturday Miscellany

■ I hope that Bob doesn't mind me traipsing in his territory, but this story caught my eye. Several months ago, he wrote about folks heading to the border for dental care "on the cheap." Apparently, someone in the Turkish press was impressed with his style, because they've picked up on the issue:

"With aching teeth and a need to cut expenses, throngs of Americans are marching into neighboring Mexico for dental care, and saving hundreds to thousands of dollars in the bargain."

So, Mexican dentists are able to treat a variety of oral ailments less expensively than their colleagues stateside, and that includes procedures such as root canals and fillings.

Of course, this article on "dental tourism" just had to reference that number of uninsured (debunked here, for one), which seems to have grown to include those who have no dental coverage.

So how come there's no great hue and cry for nationalized dental care?

■ On the tech front, Dr Bill Gates and company are working to bring the tech and health care worlds closer together:

"Microsoft executives have long talked about their plans to push technology further into the health-care field...HealthVault, as the company is branding this effort, allows users to create an account online that will store data such as medical history, health-plan information, prescriptions, images, cholesterol and blood-pressure readings."

The idea is that consumers can store and track their health care histories on-line, making it even easier to fill out health insurance applications.

Um, no:

The idea is to empower [ed: you just love that word, don't you?] consumers to be more proactive in tracking their own care, and can even be used to text oneself reminders about appointments based on that information.

Gotta love the tech.