I am a resident of two countries: the USA and Spain. For most of the year, I reside in Spain. I have now been an official resident of Spain for the past six years. I used to think that the U.S. had the best health care system in the world; it’s a line they feed us so we keep paying outrageous prices to feed the profit shares. After living in Spain for six years, I have had a baby, two miscarriages, a daughter on the public health system, and my Spanish husband uses both systems. There is no comparison to the American system. It’s better. When it comes to health care, money or insurance never comes up, only your health and what’s best for you. When I had my baby, I was in the hospital for seven days. I was there five extra days (after a vaginal birth) because my baby was losing too much weight and the doctor was concerned. They helped me with breastfeeding and sent me home when I finally had learned to feed my child.

During another pregnancy, I developed subchorionic hematoma (SCH) at six weeks. I bled every single day for six weeks straight. Whenever I had a big bleed, we would go to an ER that they had especially for pregnant women. There was no extra cost; those in the most need went first. Never did it seem strange for me to go to the ER. They always took scans of the fetus. I went to the doctor nine times over six weeks. The doctor told me I had to be on absolute bed rest. In Spain, you get paid sick leave, so it wasn’t a problem. During that time period, I joined an SCH support group through babycenter.com. I felt so bad for the Americans in the group who couldn’t afford to get another scan, or couldn’t afford to be on bed rest because they had to pay their bills. In the end, I lost the baby, but I will forever be indebted to Spain because I know they did everything they could to save my baby.

I have so many stories about how happy I am with the health care system here in Spain. Now that I have private insurance, I just have more options. My insurance cost 56 Euros a month and everything is included, no co-pays, nada. I think the U.S. needs Planned Parenthood because we don’t have adequate health care for everyone. The U.S. needs a public system, and if they do it right everyone’s health care will improve. My social security pays for the health insurance, and it’s about 5% of my salary. It is a small price to pay for the huge rewards that can’t be measured with a price tag.