My First Run-In with Universal Healthcare

So my visit to the hospital in HIllerod definitely provided some food for thought. Especially since I had 26 hours to do nothing but sleep, think, and watch the news in Danish. The whole experience kind of brought to light a lot of the differences between our cultures that are fairly understated but mean a lot in the long run. The whole healthcare system relies on the Danes almost unwavering group mentality. At the hospital there was only one real que for surgery, and so because my operation was not life threatening I kept getting bumped by other patients who were coming in. Which is of course reasonable except that there was no real time schedule for me or anyone to go by. After 11 hours of waiting in a hospital bed with an IV in my arm I was told to get some rest and that maybe the doctor would have time to see me tomorrow. From the Danish persepective this is completely reasonable, more serious cases come first end of story. From the American perspective that is all well and good, but we want some kind of time frame, if you can't treat me today then fine but make me an appointment for 7:30 tomorrow or whatever.

Which gets me to another difference, how we value time and prioritize health. When it was still unclear whether or not I was going to have to miss a 3rd day of classes I said to the nurse something along the lines of, "I need to know if this is going to happen, I can't just miss another day of classes" to which she responded, "why not?" which is kind of a funny question that we don't really ask ourselves very much. How could I be thinking about missing school at such a time?

Alright that's enough drugged up rambling for me, in a day or so I might actually write something coherent. No promises.