In the midst of Trump's visit to the UK, new developments regarding Brexit, and more questions about the direction National Health Service (NHS) is going in, it seemed the perfect time to talk about healthcare in the United States.
British-local news website JOE took to the streets to talk to locals about the costs of healthcare in the United States, and needless to say, the interviewees were shocked.
For someone who lives in the United States, the wild cost of healthcare is hardly new news.
But for someone living in the UK, where the vast majority of healthcare is free or covered by NHS, the thought of having to pay outrageous amounts of money for an ambulance is shocking.
While circling through the streets, the JOE team asked the locals what they thought someone in the United States would have to pay, if they didn't have insurance, for some of the basic necessities, like being able to call an ambulance or… breathing.
JOE started off with how much the locals thought it would cost to call for and ride in an ambulance.
One gentleman replied:
"There's a price for that?"
Another gentleman guessed:
"Zero payment."
When they heard that it cost $2,500 for an ambulance, the first man simply had a shocked, mouth-open-wide face, and the second man didn't know how to respond.
Then JOE moved on to an essential for many people: the cost of an inhaler.
The guesses were terribly low, one woman guessing a mere $100 and then $120 when prompted to guess higher.
JOE explained that the price range for a standard inhaler is between $250 and $350.
To this, the woman replied:
"For an inhaler? Man, so if you're poor, you're dead."
Then JOE mentioned another extremely expensive essential for many people, the EpiPen.
For two EpiPens, one gentleman guessed that it would cost $80. The woman who guessed the price of the inhaler previously guessed $40.
As JOE prompted to the woman to continue increasing her guess, she replied:
"Shut the fridge."
In all actuality, the cost of two EpiPens is $600.
When the woman heard this figure, she was appalled, asking:
"What? Why?"
Finally, JOE asked several people their guesses for the cost of childbirth, which averages out to be $10,000, going upwards of $30,000.
One woman guessed $100 or $200.
When told the actual amount, she yelled in the street:
"Ten grand? For a baby?"
In a twist, if a mother needs to deliver her baby by Caesaran section, there's a cost for her to hold her baby immediately after the baby is born. To provide skin-to-skin contact, it costs an additional $40.
One woman replied in shock:
"You have to pay to do that? To hold my own child that I've been carrying inside my womb?"
The same goes for someone who wants safe birth control. To implant a single IUD, it cost an average of $1300 for one person.
To this, another woman replied:
"That's mental."
You can watch the whole video here:
There's a huge differentiation between the cost of healthcare in the United States and pretty much anywhere else in the world.
For someone who hasn't been exposed to the prices previously, it's sure to raise some eyebrows.
Individuals all over the UK have been responding to the video that's gone viral, expressing their thanks for a program like NHS, and their alarm over how inaccessible healthcare is for someone without the necessary income to cover the cost of insurance.
Further developments are surely coming in the days ahead, regarding Trump's positioning in the UK, as well as the state of NHS.
But hopefully no one would disagree, being healthy should be a basic human right, and providing care that allows for that right should be a goal for everyone.
The Michael Moore documentary Sicko, available here, explored the costs of healthcare in the United States in comparison to other countries.
@kileywrestling/Bluesky
