you likely have Free medical
Not free. Universal. He pays for it through that 50%+ tax. In addition, in the last decade millions of people have been allowed to enter Europe giving them free healthcare from minute 1 (for them it is free because they had not contributed to the system before), which has led to a worsening of the service and longer waiting lists. I don't know how things are going in Germany, where I think Hhampuz lives, but
I will give you an example from the UK, where there is, as you would say, free healthcare:
What matters to individual patients is the time spent waiting. NHS England has an elective care recovery plan to eliminate long waits. Median waiting times stand at 14.5 weeks and only 58% of people are being treated within 18 weeks, so further action will be needed. Eliminating the backlog and restoring waiting times to 18 weeks will be very challenging. The achievements of the early 2000s, when waiting times were brought down from 18 months to 18 weeks, shows it can be done. However, this will require significant investment alongside sustained focus and effective supporting policies.
If you have a non-urgent ailment that requires a visit to a specialist, let's say you have discomfort when you walk and you start limping you cannot go directly to a rheumatologist or traumatologist, you have to go first to a GP, which depending on where you live can cost you 3 days or a couple of weeks, and then if the GP decides to refer you to a specialist, and does not give you for example an anti-inflammatory and makes you come back after a month, then you can spend up to 4 and a half months if you are lucky until he sees you. And imagine what it was like in the early 2000s.
Also, for the record and from a distance I think that the system you have in the USA is quite bad in some respects but don't think that the free healthcare that glitters so much is gold.
