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In 2013, my father got pancreatic cancer and insisted on leaving Memorial Sloan Kettering, the high-profile cancer hospital in New York City, to return to Paris for treatment. He had been born there and wanted to go back for the summer as he always did. Terrified though I was of his being far from home in New York, I went along and learned about all the ways that French public healthcare beats US care.

This summer I learned the lesson again. My husband had a procedure at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City in February and came home bleeding and in pain. Soon a scary rash and swelling started. For weeks we messaged the doctors to tell them but no one seemed to take it seriously as we did. The original doctor said it wasn’t his area and sent us to a specialist. Our regular specialist sent us to another specialist and a dermatologist. Our GP told us to try cream for diaper rash. Over a three-month period, my husband’s specialist doctor sent us to two dermatologists, two more experts, then tried four rounds of antibiotics and a PET scan. They tested for cancer (negative) and noticed my husband had developed anaemia, so his new haematologist gave him injections into the bone marrow. Rarely did they examine him. Mostly they asked questions and entered replies onto their screens.

Coordinating all of this during a busy spring at work was a huge burden. I estimated that I was spending at least 10 hours a week scheduling my husband’s care and accompanying him to the medical appointments. Every Tuesday we would go to a doctor at Union Square, another one on 60th st and then take a taxi to the University to teach our classes. We cancelled nearly all of our work travel, instead going to doctor after doctor hoping for an answer as to what ailed him.

Finally, a long trip was coming up and my husband was still in pain. Before flying, we went to see two of our New York doctors and they cleared him for travel, took a last look and said: “Maybe it will go away on its own.”

I was sceptical but not sure what else to do, and so just in case, I gathered a list of doctors we could call on as needed. I also looked up the best hospital near where we would be in Spain and asked a nurse I knew to check on him as soon as we arrived. We thought maybe travelling and a new set of........

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