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Comment by RektBoy | Hacker News Reader

Do you have kids? How much did you pay for the birth?

Here in EU, I payed 0. (or if you wanna be fancy, around $300 to be alone in a hospital room)

You didn't pay 0, you paid in an alternative payment scheme (using taxes). You could argue that it's better for costs to be spread among all taxpayers over time, though.

Even if they're not insured, pregnant women get free healthcare, in my EU country.

Point is… you pay taxes in the US as well… you just don’t get much from it…

Or even better, how many years of maternity leave with welfare you have in US, how much cost kindergarten or university and how much paid vacation and holidays per year you have?

Here in Czechia you will get parental benefit up to 4 years of kid, have 5 weeks of paid vacation, another roughly 10-14 days of paid national holidays and you pay nothing in hospital unless it's ER where it's like 2 or 4 USD fee so people won't go there with things which can wait. University is free and public kindergarten cost roughly 80 USD per month, last mandatory year it's free, you just pay for food roughly 40USD, same in primary school you just pay for food.

Ok, but it Czechia by and large you have Czech people paying for the welfare of other Czech people. On the other hand in the US, you would have mostly white and asian people paying for the welfare of mostly blacks and latinos. No wonder they don't want such a system. Like it or not, solidarity needs kinship, especially when it's your money on the line.

In Austin, Texas, US we paid $500 out-of-pocket by using a midwife and a birthing center, including all pre-natal and post-natal care. The rest was picked up by my employer's insurance. One has 9 months to shop around, no?

Shout out to https://www.austinabc.com/.

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