Countries where old age isn't locked behind a paywall.

[StrictlyRockers]

Link to tweet

But, but... “we have the best healthcare in the world”!


We just don’t live longer, we’re not healthier, we pay 2-3 times as much per person and millions of our fellow citizens have no coverage at all. But other than that, “we have the best healthcare in the world”, yes, of course. We're exceptional.

[Ziggysmom]

1. My stepson died a few years ago. He had many injuries from a car accident that left him with

chronic pain and depression. He couldn't work, couldn't qualify for SSA Disability. No government entity provided health care he desperately needed. When he died, the county where he lived (which also denied him medical care) paid for his cremation.

We don't have health care. We have death care.

[Hav]

9. That just sucks

Your story sounds awfully similar to what a DUer went through. He wrote a chilling OP about it. Car accident, lost his job and health care and got cancer that would have been treatable. So much suffering is preventable because, as he put it, he didn't live in a civilized country.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1002252691

[MustLoveBeagles]

12. I'm sorry for your loss

[Ziggysmom]

15. Thank you. It was a few years ago, but of course it still hurts. We need healthcare for all

as a RIGHT.

[MustLoveBeagles]

16. I agree

[pamdb]

2. Yup

One of the phrases I absolutely HATE is American Exceptionalism. Exceptional in what?
Certainly not in everything. If housing wasn't so expensive in Canada and being trapped by Medicare, we would seriously look at leaving if the big, orange turd is elected in 2024. Or any of the sycophants who have their heads so firmly up trumps ass.

Looking at Ireland and the Algave area of Portugal.

We HAVE to keep the house in 2022. I really hate this message I'm getting from the media that
its a foregone conclusion that we will lose the house.

[flying_wahini]

7. My husband and I talk about this all the time. Retired and ready to bail before the election. Maybe.

[pamdb]

11. time to leave

We're wait until after the 2024 election. Canada would be the first choice but boy houses are
expensive there (in Ontario). A house that would go for maybe in the $250,000 range are like $600,000 And of course you have to buy health insurance.

Ireland would be nice. But our dog is 9 years old and I'm not putting him on a plane. I really hate this assumption that we will lose the House in 2022.

My family has been in this country since 1638 and I've about had it.

[MarcA]

10. Exceptional at claiming to be exceptional. n/t

[malaise]

3. And don't you dare question it

[TwilightZone]

4. Our diets also suck.

There's more than one reason why our life expectancy lags behind. Health care is certainly a factor, but our diets and exercise habits (or lack thereof) are significant factors, as well.

[BigmanPigman]

5. Bill Maher always gets nailed when he brings that

fact up. No one ever supports him on this issue. Big Pharm, the medical and the food industries are profiting off of killing us.

[Evolve Dammit]

8. They all profit from killing us. It's vulture capitalism. Add chemical/oil/gas industries

[DFW]

6. That is a huge factor that so many love to overlook

I'm from the South, and the number of teenagers with Coca-Cola-induced thunder thighs bulging out of too-tight shorts is really depressing when I go back home. When we're in New England, we see it every summer, and mostly from people who not only look like out-of-place tourists, but also get into cars with license plates from the south or midwest. We do this to ourselves, it's not exclusively the health care system. Some people obviously are the victims of genetic disorders, and they are in a different category altogether. But in mountainous places from Switzerland to the Balkans to the Caucasus, a huge geographic span where health care also varies widely, people just look healthier, including the over-80 crowd. Some have great health care, some less so, but they just LIVE more sensibly.

Fast food, too much red meat, too much fried stuff, and WAY too much in the way of sugared drinks--it's the dream of both a researcher of cardiac ailments and the oncologist.

[pamdb]

13. diet

You'd think with all the cheeseburgers and 12 diet cokes a day, the big orange pile of shit would have shuffled off this mortal coil by now.

[DFW]

14. Genetics plays a role, too.

With his diet, I would have died of a stroke at age 47. Some people luck out, can have a diet like his, and live to 100. From the look of him, though, I doubt he is one of them.