Ok so I'm disgusted. More than disgusted: I'm annoyed and angry. We're the richest (freakin) country in the UNIVERSE, and yet we can't manage to get everyone proper healthcare.
You guessed it, I went to see Sicko. And not only did I see Sicko, but I was so unnerved (and, did I mention, disgusted?) by it that I immediately started looking into insurance, since I no longer have any of my own. Every time I go back to the U.S. I pretty much take my life and my pocketbook into my hands. And you know what I discovered in my research? OUR SYSTEM SUCKS! Not only do those who can't afford it pay more ('individual coverage' - those without a job or a labor union to back them up..or, um, the most vulnerable! - pay MORE money...OUTRAGEOUS amounts of money for monthly coverage), but they make the fine print and the different policies and the jargon so convoluted that you can't tell your head from your...elbow...after about 10 minutes of reading a Cigna website.
In Italy? If I'm sick, a doctor COMES TO MY HOUSE, for (you guessed it): FREE. If I have to go to the hospital? Immediate admittance, just have to hand over an ID (oh, right, I forgot, Americans think having to carry around an ID is an invasion of their liberties...). If I need to buy medicine? Depending on what's wrong with me, I either get it free or pay a MINIMAL fee - and even then, pharmacists BY LAW are required to offer you the generic version first. And if I decide I don't want to go to a public hospital or doctor for care, I can go to a private clinic and pay what's called a 'ticket,' which is a minimal fee.
Yes, my taxes are high here, I admit it. And, same as in the U.S., if I ever get to retirement here I probably won't see one tiny cent of my 'social security.' There are so many problems here, yes, (I could write a whole rant JUST on how people bump into me at the supermarket) but for Italians it's not even a question that we should be taking care of the needy - the old, the young, the unemployed, the unlucky bastards who just happen to have caught strep throat in August...maybe one day we Americans will wake up and follow suit.
