So I'm an American living in Sweden, the socialist nanny-state hellscape of the GOP's fantasies. Here's what it's like to live in a country with a high effective tax rate and a commitment to spending for the common good:
I don't worry that a minor accident, illness, or other bump in the road will derail my family's future or mean that we lose everything. We have excellent health care and social insurance, and the state steps up when we are in a crisis. It's not perfect, of course. There are emergency room wait times and such, just like everywhere else. But, for example: I broke the crap out of my foot a while back, in a pretty awful accident involving a zipline.
The local hospital in Malmö took a couple of hours to get me through intake, doctors, x-rays, and diagnosis. They sent me home with a soft cast and instructions to come back for a hard cast in two weeks or so. The next day two handsome gentlemen showed up at my apartment. They were from the city's "hjälpmedel" office, which I hadn't known existed. They take responsibility for providing resources to people with permanent or temporary disabilities.
Their goal is to provide the aids necessary "to independently, or with help, meet basic personal needs and perform daily activities.". In my case, this meant that they installed a seat in my shower and fitted me out with a wheelchair. The wheelchair was brand new and they unwrapped a soft seat and made sure the foot rests were adjusted to the correct heights. Then they carried it back down a few flights of stairs and parked it just inside the front door, ready to go. They gave me a crazy grabber stick thing so I could get things from the comfort of my sofa, and pimped the crutches we'd gotten from the doctor with reflectors and soft grips. All of this was free. They gave me their numbers so I could call if I needed anything else.
I fooled myself into thinking that I was fine to work from home for a couple of days before I realized that the painkillers I was taking were not exactly helping me to do my best work. I called the HR person at my job, and she walked me through how to call out sick (after scolding me for not calling earlier and for trying to work, which she found ridiculous). I was unpaid for one mysterious "karensdag", then received the standard 80% of my salary as long as I was out sick - plus a bump up to 90%, since i was employed by the state. Probably if I'd been out for a long time it would've involved some hassle, but for a few weeks it was just that call and a form. I had get some folks to cover my classes for me, which everyone treated like a reasonable part of working life. You're sick. Obviously we'll solve it.
Later I got the hard cast, got the cast removed, got more x rays, then started physical therapy with an amazing PT that I chose from the many options in town. Money was never a part of my decision making. You do pay a small amount to see a doctor here, up to about $50, but you only have to pay $130 per year for such visits, and then you get a "free card" for the rest of the year. There's a similar system for medication. There is, obviously, no discrimination against those with free cards. I still see that physical therapist from time to time.
About a year after the accident the zipline place's insurance company sent me some money - about $1000 - intended to cover any costs I might have had : new shoes with better support, a couple of taxi rides, etc - this because they had filled out a form when the accident happened.
That's enough of that. Let's see. Oh! Yes, I had a kid here. Obviously very intense prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care was included in this medical system - though a good deal of it is actually exempted from those small $20-50 fees, so those visits are totally free. We chose to have our kid at an extremely hippy dippy hospital about an hour away from where we lived; it was the home of Swedish Midwifery. The main differences were, as far as we could tell, that a) it was not a big deal to get vegan meals and B) the essential oils that they would drop into the large whirlpool tub that was provided were biodynamically produced. We stayed for a couple of days after the birth, in a "family room" that was basically a hotel room with constant excellent room service and adjustable beds.
An ultrasound had suggested our kid might have something up with his kidneys, so he saw a doctor earlier than most; on day 3 they took him for a lil' scan. Everything was fine. We stayed for "only" 3 days with the cable TV and vegan food deliveries, then headed home. I don't remember anything at all about the costs of all this, because there were none, basically. Mothers' and childrens' health care is free. We did have to pay for gas to get to that faraway hippy hospital, so that's probably like $40 round trip.
Alison Gerber
I don't worry that a minor accident, illness, or other bump in the road will derail my family's future or mean that we lose everything. We have excellent health care and social insurance, and the state steps up when we are in a crisis. It's not perfect, of course. There are emergency room wait times and such, just like everywhere else. But, for example: I broke the crap out of my foot a while back, in a pretty awful accident involving a zipline.
The local hospital in Malmö took a couple of hours to get me through intake, doctors, x-rays, and diagnosis. They sent me home with a soft cast and instructions to come back for a hard cast in two weeks or so. The next day two handsome gentlemen showed up at my apartment. They were from the city's "hjälpmedel" office, which I hadn't known existed. They take responsibility for providing resources to people with permanent or temporary disabilities.
Their goal is to provide the aids necessary "to independently, or with help, meet basic personal needs and perform daily activities.". In my case, this meant that they installed a seat in my shower and fitted me out with a wheelchair. The wheelchair was brand new and they unwrapped a soft seat and made sure the foot rests were adjusted to the correct heights. Then they carried it back down a few flights of stairs and parked it just inside the front door, ready to go. They gave me a crazy grabber stick thing so I could get things from the comfort of my sofa, and pimped the crutches we'd gotten from the doctor with reflectors and soft grips. All of this was free. They gave me their numbers so I could call if I needed anything else.
I fooled myself into thinking that I was fine to work from home for a couple of days before I realized that the painkillers I was taking were not exactly helping me to do my best work. I called the HR person at my job, and she walked me through how to call out sick (after scolding me for not calling earlier and for trying to work, which she found ridiculous). I was unpaid for one mysterious "karensdag", then received the standard 80% of my salary as long as I was out sick - plus a bump up to 90%, since i was employed by the state. Probably if I'd been out for a long time it would've involved some hassle, but for a few weeks it was just that call and a form. I had get some folks to cover my classes for me, which everyone treated like a reasonable part of working life. You're sick. Obviously we'll solve it.
Later I got the hard cast, got the cast removed, got more x rays, then started physical therapy with an amazing PT that I chose from the many options in town. Money was never a part of my decision making. You do pay a small amount to see a doctor here, up to about $50, but you only have to pay $130 per year for such visits, and then you get a "free card" for the rest of the year. There's a similar system for medication. There is, obviously, no discrimination against those with free cards. I still see that physical therapist from time to time.
About a year after the accident the zipline place's insurance company sent me some money - about $1000 - intended to cover any costs I might have had : new shoes with better support, a couple of taxi rides, etc - this because they had filled out a form when the accident happened.
That's enough of that. Let's see. Oh! Yes, I had a kid here. Obviously very intense prenatal, delivery, and postnatal care was included in this medical system - though a good deal of it is actually exempted from those small $20-50 fees, so those visits are totally free. We chose to have our kid at an extremely hippy dippy hospital about an hour away from where we lived; it was the home of Swedish Midwifery. The main differences were, as far as we could tell, that a) it was not a big deal to get vegan meals and B) the essential oils that they would drop into the large whirlpool tub that was provided were biodynamically produced. We stayed for a couple of days after the birth, in a "family room" that was basically a hotel room with constant excellent room service and adjustable beds.
An ultrasound had suggested our kid might have something up with his kidneys, so he saw a doctor earlier than most; on day 3 they took him for a lil' scan. Everything was fine. We stayed for "only" 3 days with the cable TV and vegan food deliveries, then headed home. I don't remember anything at all about the costs of all this, because there were none, basically. Mothers' and childrens' health care is free. We did have to pay for gas to get to that faraway hippy hospital, so that's probably like $40 round trip.
Alison Gerber
