Patricia AasI knew American healthcare was abysmal, but I was still shocked when I learned a few years ago that Americans pay for ambulance rides and giving birth.
I know I should’ve realized.
It just wasn’t in my realm of possibilities.
I went to school in the US from 95-97 and while I was there I volunteered at an “AIDS hospice”. And the premise seemed to be that it was a place where folks went to die.
Now remember I was a kid and Norwegian and clueless.
Years later someone said that I was lying when I told them this. Because why would someone be dying of AIDS in 96? There had been drugs for years by then.
So as an adult I realized that the people I had been caring for when I was a teenager were probably people who were dying of a treatable disease because they didn’t have healthcare.
And the depth of propaganda Americans live under astounds me because if you ask people on the street about if they should have universal healthcare a good bunch still say no.
That is a level of Stockholm syndrome the Swedes would have zero tolerance for.
Apiary@Patricia they are told from a very young age that they live in the best country in the world. Why would they want something lesser countries have? (It’s frustrating)
@Patricia sadly it’s propaganda that bleeds over to Canada where people are trying to undercut the public healthcare system.
ModestinoSycamore@Apiary it’s quite shocking to witness even today how deeply it is ingrained
@Patricia yep. It was a culture shock moving here.
Jack Daniel (often offline)@Apiary @Patricia I remember conversations about healthcare, and many other topics when I spent a couple of weeks in Norway in 2017. Most Norwegians were skeptical, and when convinced they were appalled. "It's like you are trying to kill anyone who isn't wealthy".
No, it is not "like" that, it is that.
No, it is not "like" that, it is that.
@jack_daniel @Apiary I know it’s true, but my brain just can’t accept it
mav 
stilescrisis@Patricia This is probably because America does have free health care, if you are in the military, but it's kind of abysmal. Long waits, lots of things denied, etc.
The Doctor@Patricia Some of it is propaganda. Some of it is "This means some people I personally don't like will die."
@Patricia People protested Ryan White at school and at home when he was alive.
David J. Atkinson@Patricia I wonder about the response the question were phrased as, “What would you think if your medical care was free?” The abstract nature of the question must certainly throw people off.
#healthcare
#healthcare
🐈⬛David Sommerseth@meltedcheese @Patricia The response I've gotten to that approach has more commonly been like "But you know, it's not free. Nothing is truly free and you pay higher taxes instead. I prefer lower taxes so I can freely choose the health insurance provider best fitting my and my family's need."
I've tried a similar response too ... where it derailed completely pretty quickly.
"So your solution with progressive taxation doesn't solve much. Then the rich people will just sponsor lazy people not willing to work, who will just abuse the system to get more in return than they contribute. This approach just enables socialistic based corruption, so the state need to spend even more money on countermeasures. Which leads to more state based surveillance. That's why Republicans are fighting for full freedom without the government controlling us."
This is paraphrased from a discussion I had many years ago. At this point, I just gave up.
These folks are brainwashed from their childhood that USA is the best democracy in the world, where anyone can become what they want if they work hard for it and that socialism is communism in disguise. But they just fail to see their wonderland country is slowly collapsing at their own doorsteps.