[xstartup]

In the US, one serious medical crisis can simultaneously make you exhausted and unable to think straight while plunging you into poverty that is nigh impossible to escape.

In Europe, we've don't have healthcare issues - it's free here.

Still, the people are unhappy and poor. Society as a whole is a lot more equal tho, I've friends who are very poor and ones who are very rich and I never sensed a discrimination.

[DoreenMichele]

I'm not sure someone from Europe can really grasp the kind of horrifying desperation of an American with a medical crisis. Americans have to wrestle with questions like "If I go and it's not serious, I'm screwed financially. If I don't go and it is serious, I'm screwed financially and in other ways." Especially if you are a parent. Not taking your kid for medical treatment can get you charged with neglect potentially.

It's just a really ugly situation that I have never actually faced and it puts me in a weird position. I've lived more like a European in some ways, because my father and ex were both career military.