Week Eight SOC 490

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.” - Albert Einstein

After living in Italy for two months it is clear that Italians could teach us all about a few things in regards to our health and well being. First of all, healthcare in Italy, is a right for every citizen. There is no question about who receives care or how they pay for it, because it is provided to everyone equally. But Italy’s healthcare system is not the only thing that we should learn from. Italians have good health not only because of their free access to care, but also due to their generally healthy lifestyle.

We got the opportunity to visit one of the public hospitals in Italy, San Giovanni. This was a very interesting experience because I felt it would give me something physical to compare between a universal healthcare system and a privatized one, and it definitely provided me with this. Functionally, San Giovanni was very comparable to a hospital in the United States. (Just one example of this was the Cath Lab, which looked practically identical to one found in the US). One thing that I believe American hospitals could take from Italian hospitals, aside from universal access to them, would be the idea of early diagnosis and patient assessment. In Italy, every ambulance has both a doctor and a nurse which allows for more immediate attention to the patient. Conversely, something that I felt was better in American hospitals, was overall sanitation and more modern hospital comforts.

But the Italian healthcare system itself is not the only thing we could learn something from, we could use more of the Italian lifestyle in America as well. When we would say to drive somewhere, Italians would choose to walk. When we say "I’d like a Big Mac super-sized,” Italians ask for buffalo mozzarella instead of regular to go with their fresh produce. It’s these cultural aspects to life in Italy that I feel have a real impact on their health. To put it simply, I think we can learn from the Italians when it comes to choosing healthy eating options, buying fresh produce, incorporating physical activity into our daily lives, and avoiding processed food. These things in Italy are more culturally appreciated, so much so in fact, that organizations like Slow Food, have emerged in Italy in order to protect these traditional values in regards to healthy and clean foods.

Like Einstein says, it’s crucial for us to keep questioning. I feel that this philosophy should apply not only to new things and inventions, but things in our society as well, even if they have been the only thing we really know. I think it is easy for Americans to assume that our privatized healthcare system and lifestyle is the best option for our nation and that nothing could work better, however this is simply because we have stopped questioning it. We have settled for the system that is in place even though it might not be the one that is best in this day and age. I hope that enough people begin to question our privatized healthcare system and look to learn from nations like Italy who have found success with universal coverage.