The ideological inability of some people to see just how fucked up our health care system astounds me.
European health care is great. You need a doctor, you go see one. It varies from place to place, but the more electivish a surgery is the longer you'll have to wait (as if people don't wait for such surgeries here, even if they have good insurance), but if you're wealthy enough you can just pay someone there or abroad to do it.
I've probably written this story before, but last time we were abroad for a significant period of time (Spain) Mrs. Atrios needed to see a doctor. It wasn't an emergency situation, but something which definitely required some attention. So, we go to the neighborhood clinic. They take her passport #. She gets to see a doctor within 45 minutes or an hour. The doctor is very concerned about the insurance issue - not because the visit was going to cost anything but because of the prescription we were going to have to get. We did have insurance, of the "submit it when you get home and if you're lucky you'll get reimbursed" variety but the doctor was still quite worried about the cost of a prescription which ended up costing us about $2.75.
