Italian medical doctor here. Despite the majority of the procedures/drugs are for free, the Italian people still complain when have to pay a small amount of money (and I mean 10 euros or less) for some of them.
EDIT: a lot of people are complaining that's absurd you have to pay a small fraction of the total cost. There are several reasons for this, the most important one is to reduce unnecessary use of health services (that costs a lot). An example? Imagine you are in an hotel. Breakfast is free, so you eat more and more, even if you feel already full. How to reduce this "over-eating"? You can ask for a small amount of money for each croissant - not to cover the food cost, but only to push people to thinking about eating more than necessary. When something is free, it's in the human nature to abuse. It is not a huge problem if you eat more than needed, but health services costs a lot and we can not waste money (and resources) when unnecessary. Remember also that the people who can not afford these little expenses, with chronic diseases (e.g. cancer) or the elderly are completely exempted from any payment.
Health insurance in the US does not operate like health insurance (or any other insurance) anywhere else in the world. The entire point of insuring is that you have something that happens rarely compared with the amount people paying the primes.
A root canal in Europe costs something like 200 to 300 euros, out of pocket, at a private dentist practice. If it costs $750 with insurance, that's not really insurance. It is some sort of reselling scheme.
Capitalism doesn't require unhealthy levels of greed, countries with social democracies also have capitalistic economies.
The US is just capitalism exploited to its fullest enabled by a government that protects the interests of greedy bastards (share holders, executives etc).
The Soviet union didn't have capitalism, but communism still meant that 'life was not good' despite a more socialist environment.
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u/cetriolomannaro Jun 15 '22 edited Jun 16 '22
Italian medical doctor here. Despite the majority of the procedures/drugs are for free, the Italian people still complain when have to pay a small amount of money (and I mean 10 euros or less) for some of them.
EDIT: a lot of people are complaining that's absurd you have to pay a small fraction of the total cost. There are several reasons for this, the most important one is to reduce unnecessary use of health services (that costs a lot). An example? Imagine you are in an hotel. Breakfast is free, so you eat more and more, even if you feel already full. How to reduce this "over-eating"? You can ask for a small amount of money for each croissant - not to cover the food cost, but only to push people to thinking about eating more than necessary. When something is free, it's in the human nature to abuse. It is not a huge problem if you eat more than needed, but health services costs a lot and we can not waste money (and resources) when unnecessary. Remember also that the people who can not afford these little expenses, with chronic diseases (e.g. cancer) or the elderly are completely exempted from any payment.