In Born in the USSR, Julia Gorin explains how she barely survived “free” Soviet health care. Here’s her introduction:
I recently came face to face with a level of Western ignorance that I hadn’t encountered since the 1980s, when Russian immigrants were still a novelty to Americans. A British-American asked my father a question that could only come from someone who has known freedom his whole life: ‘Why did you leave Russia? Your family was there, you had a job, you had free health care. Why did you leave?’ The questioner, a former editor with the New York Times, then proceeded to assert that today’s Britain and U.S. are no longer free.The exchange reminded me just how out of touch many who live in the free world are with the reality of life under tyranny — and why, therefore, so many Americans and Brits think nothing is scarier than war. On the subject even of that oft-cited ‘perk’ of Soviet life, universal health care, a picture of the system in practice on its happiest occasion would shock Americans and Western Europeans alike.
Read the whole article.