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Comment by nottorp | Hacker News Reader

> Americans in general have no idea how "humble" life can be for the European lower classes.

Don't think said lower classes live in fear of a "major health event".

My understanding is that the poorest people are covered by medicare or get their fees waved (hospitals won't refuse to treat someone needing critical care). That is not "zero social net". Nobody is in fact jealous of the American healthcare system though. Meanwhile, in most countries in Europe, people live in fear of having to be put on wait lists that extend from months to years, or just plain being unable to access any care at all due to said systems being overloaded at times due to having much less overall slack (for example during covid).

Waitlists can be visibly bad in the UK but if you read German or French papers you’ll see complaints about “wait lists” that seem laughable by US standards.

I live in SV so can afford a level of health care well above the usual middle class. Yet I have a literal A/B test: my kid broke his arm in Germany and also in the US and the ordinary treatment he got In Germany was significantly superior to that at Stanford Hospital — ant at a fraction of the cost.

You know, there's an interesting point here. Did you get travel health insurance for DE? Did you even think of getting it?

I always get that for holidays, it costs peanuts. Sometimes you don't even have to pay upfront if you use it, sometimes the treatment gets refunded.

> in most countries in Europe, people live in fear of having to be put on wait lists that extend from months to years

Absolutely false. Most people don't understand that the wait depends on priority. If you need urgent care you get urgent care.

Yes, if you need an appendectomy you will get that sorted very quickly. On other hand if you need knee replacement you might need to wait some months.

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