I didn't have to pay for college, due to Pell grants, yet she thinks that in the USA, a good student can't go to college without money. That's just not a thing. But the media in the US creates that impression for Europeans.
Also, the idea that poor people with cancer in the US are left to die. Not accurate. Medicare, medicaid, etc. Not saying its good, just saying she's deeply misinformed in the typical socialist left-wing media stereotypes and oversimplifications.
No, she actually thinks that an average (or below average, or without some exceptional physical skill etc. etc.) student can't go to college without money.
That's a non issue here in Europe (generally).
> Also, the idea that poor people with cancer in the US are left to die
You still have to pay for it.
Without premium insurance premiums forget about premium health care.
Here in Europe is not perfect, bu paying more is not necessary to get better health care.
You don't, actually. Medicaid is a de-facto single payer system (with the caveat that it's funded by both federal and state governments).
- death
- downvotes from Americans who do can't tolerate critics
Medicaid is not "free" there are requirements, but assuming you qualify, there are hidden costs. Like for example.
> The DRA created a five-year "look-back period." That means that any transfers without fair market value (gifts of any kind) made by the Medicaid applicant during the preceding five years are penalizable. The penalty is determined by dividing the average monthly cost of nursing home care in the area or State into the amount of assets gifted. Therefore, if a person gifted $60,000 and the average monthly cost of a nursing home was $6,000, one would divide $6000 into $60,000 and come up with 10. 10 represents the number of months the applicant would not be eligible for medicaid.
Maybe it's me as Italian that am a simpleton, but for me that's a cost.
If someone parents here get treated in a hospital, they are treated freely.
If after 4 years they want to gift their children with a few thousand euros to pay, for example, for their marriage, they don't have to worry about it.
Worrying has a cost.
The incentive of the Medicaid system is to lie about the real entity of the assets one possess.
I would say it depends on your illness. Here in France, if you have teeth problems, need glasses or eye surgery in order to not go blind or need to stay in the hospital, you better have good insurance (mutuelle). The state social security /does/ pay for this, but the amounts are ridiculously low. I'm not sure what the prices are in the US, but healthcare over here is not free. Source: my mom had to undergo eye surgery (the mutuelle had to cover a fair chunk of the cost) and my father had to spend some time in the hospital for surgery; both where in "state-approved" clinics.
I'm not familiar with how the US system works, but from what I understand this "mutuelle" thing looks like the employer health plans in the US. It's also paid for by the employer over here, but you have to pay income tax on it.
I think that many people, at least when they compare the US to France, consider that the insurance paid-for by the employer is somehow "free", or don't even realize it's there.
AFAIU Mutuelle costs tens of euros a month, not hundreds or thousands.
In Italy it's the same, you can go to public hospitals which are always free if the procedure is necessary, or you can go to private hospitals or clinics and pay by yourself or through a medical insurance policy, but you absolutely don't need it, it's a choice people make.
The company I work for pays for my insurance policy, it costs them 25 euros/month and I can spend up to a couple thousand euros a year on medical procedures.
Usually people use those for things like fixing your teeth as an adult (up to 18 years the State here covers 100% of the expenses)
I used it to get two dental capsules at 70% discount rate (it was manageable anyway, less than 15 hundred euros, all included)
Most Europeans don't know anything about the US other than Michael Moore documentaries and reports from very biased journalists. I think the US medical system is incredibly flawed and has horrific inefficiencies and other things that make me hate it, but I live here and I actually know a lot about it as opposed to the typical European who comments on it based on the second hand information.
That's the problem.
End of story.
> Most Europeans don't know anything about the US other than Michael Moore
Most Americans assume they know what European know, based on stereotypes 100 years old.
And have never been here.
But I've lived in the US, for example.
