4 ms·
When we lived in Italy, my then toddler had one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breath-holding_spell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breath-holding_spell
by davidw 4y ago
When we lived in Italy, my then toddler had one of these: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breath-holding_spell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breath-holding_spell and as the article says "a breath-holding spell is a frightening experience for observers", which is actually a monumental understatement.
We called the equivalent of 911 with no thoughts whatsoever about money because it's simply not a factor there. He was fine before the ambulance pulled up (very quickly) but they took him and my wife to the hospital to check him up.
Didn't pay a dime for any of it, although of course you do pay higher taxes there. But the peace of mind is worth it and overall, Italy spends less of its GDP on health care than the US.
- noorkersz 4y agobut the USA has more millionaires
- ilostmyshoes 4y ago[dead]
- willcipriano 4y agoUS taxpayers already pay, per capita, the most on earth for socialized medicine in terms of government spending[0], we just don't get universal coverage beacuse it is beyond the competency of our leadership. [0]https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/154e8143-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/154e8143-en#figure-d1e10511 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/154e8143-en/index.html?i...
- ejb999 4y agoI don't think it's beyond the competency of our leaders - I think our leaders know that not enough people actually want it. If politicians thought it was a winning strategy (defined by getting re-elected), they would be all over it. People that already have subsidized insurance (i.e. thru employers), and are happy with it, see no reason for it to change. Especially people who have good health insurance and/or don't get sick very often.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- dontlaugh 4y agoThat’s if you assume election results are somehow correlated with citizen desires. With first past the post and gerrymandering, it’s not even close to that.
- klooney 4y agoWe do have socialized medicine for more people than are in the British NHS, if you add up medicare, medicaid, and the VA.
- dsfyu404ed 4y ago>we just don't get universal coverage beacuse it is beyond the competency of our leadership. A large fraction of people are predisposed to attempt to solve the problem by incrementally throwing more money and more power at those leaders and then checking if the problem is solved. Follow the incentives...