Wow, thanks for sharing your experience. I never anticipated health insurers setting premiums by county since they don’t price in such a granular fashion where I’m from, but I’m not surprised. It does show though how many unanticipated factors come into play when weighing city vs small town life.

A big thing in Malaysia is retail distribution. We are a major food importer, and most goods go through a single port around the capital. When you have a single hub like this, the capital gets most of the fresh foods, followed by other Tier 1 cities, before they filter down to the smaller towns. When COVID hit, the supply chains jammed up, leaving the smaller towns with limited fresh fruit and veg. Well, there are processed foods of course but my opinion is you pay for over-consuming highly processed foods, just not immediately.