I had the opportunity 18 months ago to move from Cleveland to Hamburg, Germany. Being young and independent, and having little experience living outside the Buckeye State, I jumped at the chance to learn a new culture and lifestyle.
Two months ago, I had the misfortune of breaking the scaphoid bone in my wrist and required surgery. Understandably, being distant from all I knew in Ohio and having heard all the horror stories about socialized medicine, I was nervous. Contrary to my preconceptions, I did not have to wait in any lines, had access to the same medical procedures that I would have in the United States, and was secured in the fact that the government protected my right to be away from my job as I healed.
I discovered that integral to European society is the idea of health care as a right and not as a privilege; a world-view that we in the U.S. could greatly benefit from. After experiencing first hand the high quality of health care offered and given to all Europeans by their governments, I believe that we should use this up-coming election to transform our obtuse system into one that provides all our citizens access to topic quality medicine care. Simply, medical security for our nationals.
Arturo Blohm
Hudson