TEAM USA MEDALIST PREFERS HEALTHCARE IN PARIS OLYMPIC VILLAGE

August 2024 Articles

"In the Olympic Village in Paris, everyone has free healthcare as a human right. In America, 1 in 4 cancer patients go bankrupt or lose their homes because of the outrageously high cost of care."

By Edward Carver, original appeared as "US Medalist's Experience of Free Healthcare in Olympic Village Bolsters Case for Medicare for All" in Common Dreams and appears in ECM with this license print truncated.

Photos: Bing Copilot Designer powered by DALL-E 3

August 10, 2024 (Paris) -- U.S. Olympic rugby player Ariana Ramsey became a sensation on social media this week after documenting a series of free healthcare visits in the Olympic Village in Paris and becoming an advocate for universal care in her home country.

Ramsey's initial TikTok video, published Saturday, went viral in France after she expressed disbelief about the free healthcare on offer, playing into the European idea that Americans—who live in the only high-income country in the world without universal care—don't know what they are missing.

Read the full article with clickable links and embedded videos in Common Dreams.

"I literally just got a pap smear—for free," Ramsey, who won a bronze medal last week, said. "And I have a dentist appointment, and an eye exam next week. Like, what!?"

The Olympic Village polyclinic offers cardiology, orthopedics, physiotherapy, psychology, podiatry and sports medicine—all free of charge to athletes, according toSports Illustrated. The tradition of free healthcare for athletes dates back nearly a century.

Ramsey, a 24-year-old from Pennsylvania who played rugby at Dartmouth College, said in a video that "there's no reason why me, an American girl, should be so amazed by free healthcare."

In a separate post on Monday, recording while sitting in a dentist's chair, Ramsey said, "This is going to be my new fight for action, free healthcare in America. Period."

She now describes herself as a "universal free healthcare advocate" in her TikTok bio.

As seen in East County Magazine Sports and East County Magazine Health/Fitness

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Comments

Healthcare in the US has been

Healthcare in the US has been broken for decades. Universal healthcare / socialized medicine probably will never happen because the system is run by wealthy people and companies to make as much profit as possible. Politicians no doubt get a slice of the pie as well to keep the status quo. Profiteering on the people, taxpayers, government health systems is the norm.

27 million without medical insurance. . .

from Forbes . . . . .as newly elected Senator in 2017, Harris was to the left of Biden on the issue of how to achieve universal access to healthcare. At the time, she called for a transition to a single-payer system, something Biden did not endorse. Then, during the presidential campaign in 2019 and 2020, Harris walked back her support for eliminating private health insurance and establishing a single-payer system. Rather, she unveiled a healthcare plan which would involve a gradual expansion of Medicare access to all Americans over a 10-year transition period.