this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2025
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[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 64 points 6 days ago (7 children)

American here.

We were taught in grade school that Europeans lived longer because of the Mediterranean diet they ate. They could eat good bread and drink red wine and out live us Americans.

Turns out it was universal healthcare. We'll never get it here, and we'll die earlier and poorer because of it.

[–] MithranArkanere@lemmy.world 22 points 6 days ago (3 children)

The mediterranean and athlantic diets also help. But to have them you also need better quality foods, which are also worse in the US with all the derregulation.

[–] boaratio@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

Excuse me while I eat my super processed pringles, and wash it down with a super sugary drink.

[–] BCsven@lemmy.ca 6 points 5 days ago

And walking

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[–] untorquer@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

Not to mention they don't live their lives in morbid anxiety over getting sick or injured. So that's years more of life just by not being stressed and being able to think clearly.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 6 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Only people who live in the Mediterranean eat the Mediterranean diet. Frankly just because it's better for you doesn't mean it's going to make you live longer necessarily it just won't make you live shorter. And maybe they won't have to make a special spherical coffin when you do die.

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[–] Asafum@feddit.nl 92 points 6 days ago (4 children)

BuT bUt BuT tHe TaXeS!!

... I can almost guarantee the taxes are still less than the lost direct compensation from employers that instead goes to your insurance "benefit." :/

[–] Zorg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 62 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Last I checked the US spent more than any comparable country on healthcare/capita, roughly twice the OECD average.
And, they have to deal with medical bankruptcies, using Uber instead of ambulances, insulin rationing, and whatnot

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 6 days ago (2 children)

yup. Last time i checked, america was paying about $14K per capita, and the rest of the developed world was paying $3K-6K

[–] Tower@lemmy.zip 11 points 6 days ago (1 children)

but what about the shareholders?!?

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[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago

yeah but why would I pay for healthcare if I'm healthy(now)!!??

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[–] SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 49 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (5 children)

I live in the Netherlands. If I visit the hospital I have to pay my yearly deductible of €350 first. This person paid zero dollars because her travel insurance paid for it.

The Netherlands has the same system as Obamacare. Privatized insurance with government subsidies for low income. Only difference is that the government sorta acts like a single payer, they negotiate with big pharma over medicine prices and the government with the insurers make a price list for healthcare providers on what they can charge.

Of course a healthcare provider can decide to charge whatever they want but then insurance won’t cover that business.

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[–] MehBlah@lemmy.world 36 points 6 days ago

My daughter was in Ireland and had a problem that would have cost her a minimum of four thousand in the US with insurance. Her cost was 75 euros. They apologized for it not being complexly free.

[–] themaninblack@lemmy.world 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

For a nation with half of all citizens owning guns, it’s amazing that there isn’t more pressure on politicians to implement a universal healthcare scheme.

Lone wolves tend to target schools and workplaces.

It will always remain baffling to me that no rogue widows or widowers, by consequence of the system, don’t bring their grievances to those in charge of healthcare policy.

[–] emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

It will always remain baffling to me that no rogue widows or widowers, by consequence of the system, don’t bring their grievances to those in charge of healthcare policy.

I think last year someone did. And like the heroes from the old Western movies, (s)he vanished into the sunset, never to be seen again.

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 17 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I have a friend who is a doctor and technically speaking Americans should get charged for medical treatment and then their insurance should pay for it, after all they are not citizens and don't pay taxes. But no one seems all that clear on how to actually bill them so it almost always never happens.

The American system is so batshit crazy that no one else from any other country knows how to interface with it.

[–] vala@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 5 days ago

No one from the US knows how to interface with it either. It's a giant unnavigable mess.

[–] Aneb@lemmy.world 25 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Insurance is just a scam to keep people enslaved to jobs for their premiums and coverage. If only quality care wasn't tied to employers' insurance we might actually have competition back in the market. Have better products and a livable state of life. As someone on Medicare I can't afford a 400% increase to my premium after tax credits are slashed in the coming years. Socialism is at least a band aid to our monolithic oppressive capitalist economy.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 10 hours ago

friendly reminder that mutual insurance exists, you can just pool your money together with other people to insure each other.

It's probably the closest you can get to opting into socialism in a capitalist society.

[–] ShittDickk@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

Its just privatized socialism, where the rich get subsidized by the poors who have it but cant afford the minimum and co pays to actually use it.

[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 44 points 6 days ago (10 children)

I naively expected that all of Europe had health care figured out. The bullshit $450 USD bill I got in Sweden for existing in the same room with a doctor for 15 minutes taught me otherwise.

[–] rumschlumpel@feddit.org 37 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

You know how in many poor countries, they'll charge you higher prices because they (rightly) think that you're a westerner and can thus pay much higher prices than the locals? I heavily suspect that was basically that. Swedes aren't paying $450 USD for 15 minutes doctor time.

[–] TragicNotCute@lemmy.world 16 points 6 days ago (4 children)

I figured as much, but it was jarring to receive worse care and for way more money than I would have paid at home (even uninsured).

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[–] Damage@feddit.it 25 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Your experience is more realistic than the one in the post. EU citizens in EU countries "don't pay" for healthcare services because it's already paid through taxes, foreigners are supposed to be billed because they don't pay taxes in the EU. (it doesn't always happen tho, you know, administrative error, oops)

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[–] TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works 26 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Did you guys think we were just all collectively lying to you about this shit?

Hey, Grammy's cancer bill just came in and it's 1 million euros, tell the Americans it was free though.

I'm financially destroyed but at least I can make fun of Americans

[–] Zink@programming.dev 16 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Pointing out that "free" healthcare is actually paid for by somebody is seen as a killer gotcha in the conservative world. They assume that as soon as somebody learns that they are paying money into taxes that benefit other people, they will also flip out and fight tooth and nail to stop it.

Keep pushing and they might hit you with another zinger, like how the US is not a democracy, it's a republic! 🤯

[–] SaraTonin@lemmy.world 8 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Here’s a fun fact, though…people in the US pay more in taxes towards healthcare than we do here in the UK. And then they have to pay on top of that.

It’s almost as if having an entire for-profit industry acting as middle-men doesn’t lead to the best value for money.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthcaresystem/articles/howdoesukhealthcarespendingcompareinternationally/2016-11-01

Despite less than half of the USA’s total healthcare expenditure coming from government expenditure or compulsory insurance schemes, it still spends more per person on these financing schemes than the UK- £3,111 in the USA in 2014, compared with £2,210 in the UK.

[–] TheJesusaurus@sh.itjust.works 4 points 5 days ago

Fun fact, not just the UK but in fact every single nation on planet earth.

That is correct, as a portion of GDP Americans pay a higher portion of tax into healthcare than any nation on planet earth by a significant margin, before anyone ever pays a cent privately.

America is also the only industrialised nation on earth, the only member of the G20 who does not provide some form of cradle to grave medical coverage for all citizens

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they do, with a shit load of propaganda.

mostly they focus on diminishing the value of public healthcare, and compare it with the best theoretical private service you could get.

look at those dirty europoors with dirt cheap healthcare and endless waiting times (both lies), and compare it with what a CEO can afford in there states. you see? US private system is better.

unless you're poor or middle class who can't afford to live, in which case, fuck you.

[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 18 points 6 days ago

Yep

And they've been lied to not only about healthcare

They've also been lied to about work)life balance, about taxes for the rich, about cars and bicycles, about...

The US has become w cesspool over the past 5 decades basically because everyone there has been lying their asses off and nobody cared to force people to be truthful about anything

A good press could have stopped this tide but that's gone since long ago too

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 26 points 6 days ago (1 children)

yeah, but that's socialism. I'd rather have socialism with a middleman and pay 30 times more!

[–] Lemminary@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

Only 30x? Pfft, don't you want to be endebted for life??

[–] P1k1e@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago (2 children)

I mean as cool as this is, it's exactly the story the right uses to oppose it.

Non tax paying, non citizens getting subsidized healthcare. A conservative horror story for the ages

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 8 points 5 days ago

Conservatives are bad people and they should be prohibited from making policy decisions.

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[–] notsosure@sh.itjust.works 18 points 6 days ago (2 children)

This is misleading. Also in Europe people need to pay for healthcare - it’s just that the costs are lower and more equally distributed. It does happen that a foreigner is treated for free (should the hospital decided that billing is too much hassle, but that happens verrry rarely).

[–] whyNotSquirrel@sh.itjust.works 11 points 6 days ago (5 children)

in France and the UK I'm quite sure you're treated for free, or I'm living in a fairytale, which is possible also

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[–] lowleekun@ani.social 15 points 6 days ago (1 children)

I mean if fascism isn't enough of an incentive to leave a shitty country i don't know what is.

You are not getting healthcare before you do your homework (a revolution deposing your oligarchs).

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 6 days ago (1 children)

Lots of people can't leave. Be it because of finances, or their skill set not being needed to get a visa in another country

Unless countries start to recognize the situation in the US as asylum worthy, there's not much one can do to leave the country

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[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 17 points 6 days ago (3 children)

Won't somebody please think of the shareholders!?

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[–] borQue@lemmy.zip 8 points 5 days ago (5 children)

Americans are so afraid of communism that they forgot the good things that it can bring. Capitalism on the other hand...

[–] echodot@feddit.uk 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

It's not communism it's just social responsibility. The medical services aren't free they are paid for by society.

It's just that your value to society is not prejudiced by some corporate overlord before you're allowed to get your medical treatment.

Americans are so afraid of communism that they jump at shadows. It's almost impossible to forward a progressive idea without being accused of being some evil communist. It's kind of amazing the country has managed to get to 250 years without imploding

[–] okamiueru@lemmy.world 9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

I can't remember the last time I've heard someone use the term communism or socialism correctly.

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[–] yarr@feddit.nl 9 points 6 days ago (6 children)

Sounds like COMMUNISM to me!

As an American, I'll gladly support the world's greatest economy by paying a few thousand to get checked out. Know why all these European countries are so poor? Because their health insurance and private health care companies barely make anything.

Do your part! Contribute to the economy!

God bless America!

[–] elucubra@sopuli.xyz 14 points 6 days ago

Actually, private health companies make bank. Where I live, public health care is top notch, but you may have waiting lists, or have to share a room, and things like that. Private companies often provide more immediate appointments, single hospital rooms, certain diagnostics on demand, etc. Quite a few people either pay to have those plans, or their employer does. This is on top of public health care, not instead. You can have your cake and eat it too.

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