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uh, what?
For the record, I'm German, and I am like a haircut and some gym hours away from being able to play the SS officer in a ww2 movie. That and I probably lack the acting skills of a christoph waltz.
That being said, I don't think anyone left of the center (and, therefore, realistically, anyone on lemmy) would disagree with you, I am not sure what you are trying to argue then. Yes, we have widespread casual and institutional racism. Sexism is also still a thing despite decades of efforts. Surprise, people here are people, so they subconsciously prefer good-looking people that look familiar. Our government is corrupt and conservative-populist, the government before it was corrupt and "liberal" (in the US sense), our economy is basically clinging to combustion engines because they missed the jump to EVs, right-wing extremists are on the rise and are already winning local elections, and every now and then someone commits something bad enough to make evening news. We're selling weapons to everyone who asks, bonus points if you promise to only hit the bad civilians with them. Oh, and if I'm lucky, I won't have to worry about climate change as I'll bleed to death in a trench in Poland.
Yeah, shit sucks. But that is not an excuse to not clean your own house. I believe that there are many good things here that the US should take some inspiration from. Our healthcare system is a bloated mess, but it's miles better than the US. Workers rights, tenants rights, the welfare system (or whatever is left of it after the neoliberals and conservatives took turns gutting it for 30 years), a somewhat sane multi-party voting system, half-decent separation of powers, a constitution that is more modern than the 18th century, the metric system, proper gun laws (even a bit too strict in my opinion), an expectation of public transport (excluding Deutsche Bahn, they can go fuck themselves), just to name a few.
So, to cut a long ramble short, saying "this country has some good things, we should look into them in that other country" and "this country is perfect, nothing is ever wrong here" are two completely different sentences.
One question really
Is this a first hand experience or just what you have learned?
I mean, have you experienced US Healthcare first hand?
Nope, I have never lived and worked for a longer time in the US, therefore, no first-hand experience. I have relatives who lived and still live in the US, and so far I haven't heard anything to the contrary.
I did have the joy of almost having to pay a non-trivial hospital stay out of pocket here due to some insurance shenanigans, and a (iirc) 5-day stay with 3h surgery and a bunch of extras (due to "Privatversicherung" rates, difficulty, MRI, CT etc.) came out to less than 10k€. I don't remember the actual costs, since in the end the insurances did finally agree on who had to pay, but it must have been something like 6-7k total. From what I heard, that is roughly similar to US out-of-pocket costs, except that due to insurance, I paid 0€.
If you have a good argument against my point, I'm happy to hear it. As I said, our health care system is a mess right now. The boomer generation retiring is going to make things very difficult. Bureaucracy is exploding, for several reasons. The two-class system with private and public insurance is disgusting bullshit and quite the opposite of what I believe "social democracy" should be.
I dont suppose I have an argument particularly. I can tell my experiences for what they are worth.
In 2015 I was in a traumatic car accident and a 3 month hospital stay, then 1 month physical rehab. I got a bill from the hospital for 250k, then a week later my insurance paid it. PHEW! So, I guess if I hadn't had insurance id be paying that the rest of my life? Thats a terrible prospect. I also wonder, if I hadn't had insurance, would i have got the same level of care in the hospital? I think maybe not... maybe.
Another story, this was like 20 years ago, but I was in Mexico and my thumb almost got chopped off my a machete... anyway, I went to the little clinic, and we called the Dr. Because he wasnt there at the moment, but he came in 10 minutes and cleaned and stitched the wound. He gave me antibiotics and it all cost me... 10$ cash!!
So, that said, if one wants good health care in America, one needs insurance.