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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]It is nice to not have to worry about health care and have work - life balance. [b]When you are sick, you can see a doctor and stay home until you are better. [/b]When your kid is sick, you can take off work and stay home. If you end up unemployed for a while, you still have health care. It’s okay to take three weeks off to travel to Thailand or spend summer at the lake house. Enjoying nature is a way of life and relaxation a priority. Now you may live in a smaller apartment or house, and if you are a 1%er your life would probably be more luxurious in the US, but for the average middle class family, life is much more relaxed in Scandinavia (and some other European countries).

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This post makes me chuckle.  This is what most Northern Europeans think about America.  I receive 5 weeks (plus holidays) of vacation and it’s like they don’t even believe me.  They can’t understand it doesn’t come from the government or how I receive something if it isn’t mandated.  They also seem to question if I can go to the doctor even though when they go to the doctor almost all of the medical equipment is from the US.  Same for many of the prescription drugs and medical devices.

I’m far from wealthy and everyone I know goes to the doctor, stays home when they are sick and stays home from work with a sick child.  How would America be the power house that it is if we couldn’t even see the doctor when we are sick?  That doesn’t make any sense.  I’m from a flyover city and I don’t know anyone with a job who doesn’t have employer based health insurance or doesn’t have sick leave.  Yes, there are people in America that don’t but a large percentage of them are not even US citizens.  [/quote]

Many Americans cannot stay home when they are sick or when their children are sick. When I lived in Europe, one year I had the flu twice and stayed home a total of 3 weeks. My kid was sick and I stayed home another 7 days. When my co worker had a heart attack, they went to a rehab type facility and they were out for 6 weeks. In the US you would have been docked sick time. In many European countries, “sick days” are almost unlimited. Just look around on these boards to see how stressed families are, everyone is running low on PTO and using it up for when their family is sick.

And just look at how many people have large out of pocket cost on their health insurance. Medical care is extremely expensive in the US. I took my kids to the Dr for suspected RSV or Covid and ended up paying hundreds of $. [/quote]

No, you took them to the ER if you paid hundreds.  Ridiculous.  No one has huge fees as their regular doc.

I have COVID now.  I have a bad flu in terms of symptoms.  Why would I call or go to the doctor?  To tell me what is obvious?  Have you not now learned what to take with a bad cold/flu?  Yes, it is uncomfortable.  Taking Advil and cold meds.  Good enough.

Going to the doctor for stupid stuff is why health care is so expensive. I see so many posts here saying if you get cold symptoms or a positive COVID test to make an appointment.  Why on earth?  Make an appointment if you have a problem out of the ordinary, not just symptoms of a cold!  Doctors aren’t wizards with a magic wand.  They can tell you what to do if you are so ineffectual not to know hot to treat symptoms as adults.  It’s disgusting how Americans go to the doctor for nothing.  The rest of the world makes fun of us.

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