I remembered this old meme the other day and it got me thinking; can you actually travel to Europe as a US citizen exclusively to take advantage of the more affordable healthcare?
I remembered this old meme the other day and it got me thinking; can you actually travel to Europe as a US citizen exclusively to take advantage of the more affordable healthcare?
There is no “Europe”.
Regarding healthcare, each country has different laws. Even though their systems are mostly somewhat similar, there are huge differences in costs and performances. Your conditions for entry are determined by the laws, of course (for example, you cannot stay a US citizen), regardless if you are looking for a state funded or a privately funded system.
If you are looking for the strongest one of the state funded systems (so you can leech the most out of it), it is probably Norway.
Italy is super cheap compared to the US, but the quality varies a lot by region (don’t go to the south) and the waiting lists are so long.
A lot of places don’t give free healthcare to non residents. Such as the UK. But it can still work out cheaper. I heard a story of an American couple who were over with no health insurance and ended up having to stay a few days in hospital. They were super panicky and were discussing remortgaging their house. Until they were given the £200~ bill.
For a stay? Under which king was that?
About 3-6000 in today’s Germany (still doesn’t take your house).
IIRC it is calculated by the ward’s operating cost for your time in hospital, then divided by the number of patients. So if it costs £3000 to operate a ward for two days and there were ten patients there, then it’s £300.
So what you’re saying is that if I get injured, I had best take a few down with me so we can all be in together and split the costs?
Yes.