While some Olympians enthused about the food at the Olympics, specifically the delectable double chocolate muffins, US rugby player Ariana Ramsey has been posting about the free healthcare. She posted to TikTok that she’d seen a dentist, OBGYN and eye doctor and even got free glasses! You can see her video about that below, and here is People’s writeup.
After winning a bronze medal at the Paris Summer Olympics for women’s rugby sevens on Tuesday, July 30, Ariana Ramsey stuck around in Paris to take in the sights, watch other athletes compete in events — and also schedule a year’s worth of medical appointments at the free polyclinic in the Olympic Village.
The two-time Olympic athlete chronicled her experience on TikTok and explained her shock at finding out all athletes have free healthcare while competing during the Summer Games.
“Not only in the Village do we have free food but we have free dental, free healthcare,” Ramsey, 24, revealed to her followers in a clip posted on TikTok, which she captioned: “I quite literally love it here. The way the Olympic village has free healthcare.”
In the video, she added, “I literally just got a pap smear for free and I have a dentist appointment and an eye exam next week. Like what?”
In another TikTok video, Ramsey shared she got a free new pair of glasses following her eye exam. “I have 20/20 vision but they gave me glasses because I told her my vision gets blurry sometimes. So now I have glasses,” she said while showing off her new frames.All in all, Ramsey says she has gotten a pap smear, an eye exam, a new pair of glasses and a dental checkup while staying at the Olympic Village.
People goes on to report that other health-related services for Olympic athletes include “cardiology, orthopedics, physiotherapy, psychology, podiatry and, of course, sports medicine.” It sounds great there. Whenever I’ve reported on a US-specific healthcare story, non-Americans have commented on how surprised they are by the state of healthcare here. Everything is expensive, and even if you have health insurance (thanks to the Affordable Care Act) you can easily go into medical debt after seeking treatment for a minor issue. It’s a despicable, for-profit system that needs to be overhauled. I used to live in Germany, where they have a nonprofit healthcare system. It’s much more affordable and accessible, and I used to go to the doctor more. So this is just your reminder that healthcare is so bad in the US that Olympians are taking advantage of the healthcare in the US Olympic village. You know so many other US Olympians’ moms saw this story and asked their young adult kids why they didn’t get their teeth and eyes checked.
As a side note, Ariana has more TikTok videos from Paris including her skincare hauls and some of the cute outfits she got in the Olympic village. Ariana posted a longer YouTube video of her arrival there and it was fascinating to see the way the Olympians are welcomed with so much swag from brands like Oakley, Skims and of course Ralph Lauren. She also showed her accommodation inside the village with her team, which doesn’t look that bad. Ariana doesn’t have a lot of followers yet but that’s surely about to change.
@ariana.ramsey I quite literally love it here. The way the Olympic village has free healthcare, but America doesn’t😣 #o#olympicso#olympicvillageo#olympiant#teamusar#rugbyb#bronzemedalist ♬ original sound – Ari Ramsey
photos via YouTube/Ariana Ramsey
Erm… she got tests done I get every year for free. And I can get any other test for free.
I live in the EU.
I live in CA and many of these services are free annual check ups here as well. But that’s not the case for many services (or all US states) unfortunately.
I was shocked when we moved to the UK after having lived in the US for a year, and I took my daughter to a doctor – no charge and then when we picked up the prescription for her ear infection – no charge. We were Canadians living over there for my husband’s job and they never even questioned us. This may have changed in the last few years but it’s a memory I will always have – that the first question asked is “what’s wrong” not “how are you paying”.
And when our child moved to Canada, we were shocked at how inexpensive their health care was. A 90 day supply of their ADHD medications for $3CDN! Their roommate went to the emergency room – Kiddo said they paid a $25 co-pay which included everything – ambulance, x-rays, physicians fees, cast, crutches. . . .
Kiddo lives in Toronto and is covered by the University of Toronto’s international student insurance plan and sees the doctors in the University’s health center, but after three years, I’ve heard nothing but good things.
Yep, continuously shocked/appalled European here who regularly comments on these stories. How can you die because you have a treatable/manageable condition but not the funds to cover medication? It’s truly horrifying. I see my doctor for free, get smears, free birth control and now I pay a nominal fee for my hrt patches.
I live in constant feat that our current French government will soon realise that they need to further gut our health system like they did the pension one, the benefits one and so many others which I’m currently forgetting about.
A couple of years ago I discovered that if you signed up in a doctor’s office you don’t even have to pay your consultations in advance (and be reinbursed afterward), it changed my life and the doctor I found is great.
It’s a way to exploit the working population. Lots of people putting up with horrible jobs because the alternative means losing your healthcare. Obamacare helped put in place more options for people in those situations, but it’s still incredibly stressful worrying that you can’t pay your premiums or that you won’t qualify for Medicaid etc.
I was unemployed for a time and I had access to something that was called the CMU (I don’t think it’s called that anymore) and it’s basically healthcare, I was able to see health professionals throughout the entire period which was very helpful. Everybody in France has access to it but you have to ask for it so nobody advertises it. I heard about it through my sister’s friend and nobody in my family knew about it.
Good for her for getting care — and for sharing the contrast between her life in the Olympic Village vs in the US.
Question though: What’s planned for the next Olympics? Will hundreds of people used to having access to healthcare in their home countries come to the US — only to leave bankrupt if they get a sprain? Or will America get to see hundreds of Olympians accessing free healthcare at their Olympic Village — beyond the wildest dreams of most of us juggling medical costs and and fears of massive medical debt? I’m hoping that by then there will be better options for all of us.
That’s an excellent question, but we (just an European, not an Olympian, haha) can buy travel health insurance from an insurance company in my homeland in advance for the period we are in a country and it is a whole bunch of stuff (levels of packages) for a small price. For example, I paid 18 EUR (20 USD?) for 2 weeks abroad. I do expecr the USA would be more expensive, but everything that happens should be covered by the insurance policy for about 100 EUR. But the point is – you have to pay in advance.
I might be wrong about this, but I believe there are physicians, nurses and dentists from all over the world who volunteer their services to treat olympians in exchange for a trip to the Olympics. There was an indie romcom movie that came out a few years ago that was set in (I think) the 2016 games, about an American dentist who does that and has a meet-cute with one of the athletes, and they got permission to film during the games.
That makes sense to me. Athletes won’t have to pay for whatever health care they need during the Olympics, just as I expect they don’t have to pay for their room, their food, etc. Although I also can’t see anyone just getting a free dental exam, etc. Might want to wait til you get home for that.
Healthcare should be a human right, not a commodity, and I don’t get how the Rethugs think this is somehow bad.
It’s good to see TikToks like Ariana’s find their audience. May they inspire people to question the system in the US and then vote accordingly.
Because under this immoral version of “capitalism” (which is actually corporatism) it’s more advantageous to the system (and those siphoning money out of it) for some people to be dead rather than being cared for.
Very smart young lady.. i enjoyed her videos.
I had to wait until I turned 65 to have most of my healthcare free or low cost in the U.S. Medicare is wonderful! We have a supplemental policy that picks up most of what Medicare doesn’t. My prescriptions are also affordable now, and I dont have to worry about a medical emergency wrecking us. Americans shouldn’t have to wait until 65 for this right, but it’s one more thing that Trump wants to take away.
I found her story endearing yet very sad at the same time.
A young vital woman in shock at being able to access good free healthcare.
Something that should be an inalienable right just like a good basic education.
A few years ago, I was suffering from a persistent ear infection and was on an antibiotic that had a $75 copay. At a doctor visit confirming that both ears were still infected, I asked if there was anything I could do to address the ear pain I knew I would experience on a flight I was taking the next day. Doctor asked where I was going, ripped up the prescription she had just written, handed me a day’s worth of samples, and then wrote a new prescription with an address in Paris. I paid $1 for a 10 day supply of an antibiotic made in the U.S. France and other governments tell Pharma what they will pay and the price difference gets passed onto the US consumer because our government lets them charge whatever they want
Because I’m me, I have to point out healthcare isn’t “free” in Canada.
Our taxes, & other means, go towards it.
It also needs to be said that healthcare is under Provincial government.
Which is why what Ford is doing is so horrendous: we are moving fast towards the US system. So fast.
The latest “beer in convenience stores & Galen Weston’s pockets” is but another nail. The billions in revenue from the LCBO funded healthcare. Service Ontario is in Staples! Staples!
So. Get it where you can because healthcare is quickly becoming a thing of the past, worldwide it seems.
What Kokiri said. And he’s probably going to call another election soon which will give him a majority because a ton of Ontarians don’t vote.
Even if you have healthcare insurance in the US, the provider (Dr, clinic, pharmacy) can refuse to accept it. We have TriCare my husband earned after 23 years in the military. And we can’t use it, because 2 years ago, everyone in our area stopped accepting it. The system is truly broken when a clinic can force people with actual health insurance to pay full price.
You guys even pay for pap smears?? Jesus…
We pay just to do a verbal consult with a doctor.
It truly is an abysmal system here in the US.
There are premiums, co-pays, and deductibles. These can be very different from one plan to another. What exactly is covered can be very different from one plan to another. Most plans charge more if you get care from a doctor or health care facility not on their list of approved providers, or may not cover this at all. Some of the worst stories I’ve heard have been from people who went to an approved facility for care — but received care from providers that they had no choice about. So going to the approved hospital for surgery— and learning later that an anesthesiologist’s bills weren’t covered because they weren’t an approved provider.
Also, most plans don’t cover dental care, and many don’t cover vision care (or not very much). ACA plans have a list of required services that they cover, but if they cover one XYZ every 2 years and you want annual tests, you might have to pay out of pocket for the additional tests.
You can get free Pap Smears but it may take extra work to find where you can access them (and using up poor people’s time is another type of class warfare). I got free/sliding scale Pap Smears through Planned Parenthood for years.
Yeah, but not annual mammograms, at least.
I assumed an athlete at this level of competition would have access to the best health care there is
That was my assumption, as well, but then again–so many of these athletes are young, some in college, some working P/T jobs so that they can train & maybe they don’t have access to health care unless they’re on their parents’ insurance, or use their college clinic, or whatever. She’s good for a year, at least!