As to the first point, the cost of this care had to be in the millions, or would be in the U.S. anyway. My MIL recently had extended care due to a fall and the bill was $500K. Fortunately after Medicare, cost to her was $1300.

In any case, it's still an extraordinary allocation of resources to save one life. According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healthcare_in_Norway:

> Expenditure on healthcare is about 7,727 USD per person per year in 2020, among the highest in the world. While the availability of public healthcare is universal in Norway, there are certain payment stipulations. Children aged sixteen or younger, and several other groups (such as nursing women and retirees) are given free healthcare regardless of the coverage they may have had in previous situations. All other citizens are responsible for paying a certain amount in user fees. If they reach a certain amount of money paid out-of-pocket, they receive an exemption card (frikort for helsetjenester in Norwegian) for public health services, and they no longer have to pay user fees for the remainder of the calendar year. The amount is 2460 NOK in 2021, or about 264 USD. Everything above this amount is given for free for the rest of that year.

She went on to become a radiologist so probably pays a decent amount in taxes now. As well, as a radiologist, she now helps to care for others. But still, she'll never "pay back" what was expended on saving her life.

I'm not trying to make any point here, other than that humans are weird in how we allocate resources to each other.

Edit to add:

I didn't mean to spawn a whole conversation about U.S. vs European healthcare, and my point above is not well made.

I'm just lamenting how 100 humans will come together to save one life while we still allow over a half million people a year to die from malaria. You'll see a dozen humans rescue a dog during a flood while I don't even want to look up the number of dogs that are euthanized. How the world came together to save those kids from the Thai cave, but we can't collectively figure out how to deal compassionately with immigrants.

I know we're just doing the best we can as a species. But I can still be both amazed by a symphony orchestra and sad that we use those same brains to build F-22s.

Also, FWIW, as a U.S. citizen, my vote is for Medicare For All, or failing that, a price-regulated multi-payer system like Germany's.