I’m privileged and grateful to have received a full scholarship to a summer program with an esteemed instructor. Many of my classmates are from overseas.
Over half of us, along with the professor and TA’s, tested positive for covid last week.
Many others had covid symptoms, but tested negative. It is unclear if this was a result of now-expired tests previously provided by the U.S. government, or if covid has mutated into something the tests aren’t accurately picking up.
While many (but not all) of those who are from the U.S. were able to get care, those from over seas were shocked by just how awful the U.S. health care system is.
Not one received proper care, at urgent care centers nor at emergency rooms.
All were required to have health insurance to come to the U.S. All have it, but no place accepts it. They paid out of pocket, and will need to submit for reimbursement when they return to their home countries.
One paid $175 to have a doctor lecture him (he is from Singapore) about covid’s origins, and suggest he drink more water and do his own research on how covid has mutated. They denied him Paxlovid. It’s almost as if the well-educated doctor… didn’t know where or what Singapore is (like too many Americans).
Another classmate, a person of color from the U.S. South, has no insurance, and suffered through a severe bout alone.
A wealthy white woman with good insurance, scolded the poor fellow for not having insurance. She got great, accessible care, despite being from out of state—and was baffled that he didn’t. Her insurance covered most of the $1,600 Paxlovid cost.
Those from over seas were flabbergasted—do people in the U.S. realize how bad our health care system is? How archaic, how cold, how crass, how capitalistic? It’s almost as if people in the U.S. don’t realize what much of the world already knows: People in other countries do not treat care as a transaction.
Personally, I’ve experienced better, more accessible health care in Bolivia and Cuba.
Many in the U.S.—especially those with resources—don’t understand just how bad our health care system is, especially for the poor, the rural, etc.
While my classmates are out literally thousands of dollars, I count my self as lucky to have a scholarship. I spent the week testing negative (on old, expired tests) but very much feeling like I had a relatively mild version of what I had just a few months ago.
Meanwhile, someone else insisted I was immune to covid now.
I know too many people who have had covid at least twice to pretend this is something that natural immunity wards off. Many of those who had covid in our class were vaxxed and had multiple boosters.
Anyway. I feel for my classmates, and for all in the U.S. who struggle to stay healthy.
If one needs more proof at just how bad health care is here: Maternal mortality rates in the U.S. are shameful, the worst of any “developed” “Western” nation. If you are a pregnant woman, you are more likely to die in the U.S. than any other “developed” nation. If you’re black or brown or rural in the U.S., you’re even more likely to die.
The U.S. really is exceptional.
Just not in the way most in the U.S. think.
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Ahiy’é.