As someone from exUSSR, I'm shocked with the figures. We've given birth in Russia and in Kazakhstan, in both cases I paid nothing at all. Just taxi to the birth

As someone from exUSSR, I'm shocked with the figures. We've given birth in Russia and in Kazakhstan, in both cases I paid nothing at all. Just taxi to the birth house (that's how the birth clinics are called), and my wife disliked the food, so I brought her some fruits and maybe corn flakes every day of 3 days she stayed there. The equipment I could see was modern, everything was clean, there was some confusion where to put her, otherwise everything was fine. If you're suspicious, you can go to private clinic at $1,5K..2K, they even send you a taxi (or who knows, maybe a private ambulance). My libertarian friends criticise this from the point that "everything state-run is inefficient". Even if this is true, they fail to notice that state-run healthcare keeps prices of the private sector down. You don't have to sell a car if you're seriously sick. In 1992-96 on Russian state TV, there was a translated program called something like "Rescue number 911", with nobody else but William Shattner. (We already knew him at the time.) I got an impression that the US healthcare was impeccable.