The Olympic Village offers free health care. Here’s how much it would cost in the U.S.
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The Olympic Village offers free health care. Here’s how much it would cost in the U.S.
At the Olympic Village in Paris, athletes can get a side of free health care with their chocolate muffins.
Ariana Ramsey, a rugby competitor for the U.S. team, which won a bronze medal, was able to score a free eye doctor appointment, free glasses, a free dentist appointment and a free pap smear.
“I’m truly amazed. I’m truly amazed,” Ramsey said in a TikTok video.
In another video, Ramsey declared that America needs to improve its medical coverage.
“America needs to do better with their health care system,” Ramsey said. “Of course I’m amazed. We don’t have free health care in America.”
The U.S. is the only high-income country without universal health care coverage, according to the Commonwealth Fund, a health care research foundation. Many Americans find it difficult to handle medical expenses: A quarter of U.S. adults said they skipped or postponed care over the prior year due to cost, according to a 2023 survey from KFF, a health care research group.
Even those with health insurance are concerned about expenses. Almost half of U.S. adults say they’re worried about affording their monthly health insurance premium, according to a recent KFF poll.
In 2023, the average annual health insurance premium was more than $8,400 for single coverage and almost $24,000 for family coverage.
“Not everyone here is insured, and so different people face different prices. People who do have good health insurance coverage often are paying very low out-of-pocket amounts for their health care. And then people who don’t have health insurance coverage could be subject to really high, really burdensome costs that could really be devastating if you’re on a lower income,” said Brandy Lipton, an associate professor at the University of California, Irvine, Joe C. Wen School of Population and Public Health.
For pap smears, your health insurance should be covering the cost, Lipton said. But if you don’t have insurance, a routine test can cost between $50 and $100, although it’ll depend on how extensive the exam is, she explained.
Dental and vision insurance are also separate from medical insurance (although that isn’t unique to the U.S.). Only about 30% to 40% of Americans have vision coverage, Lipton said.
“It’s great that [the Olympic Village is] offering access to vision, dental and women’s health care. I think sometimes those services can be a little bit underappreciated,” Lipton said.
While employer-sponsored insurance plans will typically offer dental insurance, eye care insurance is “quite a bit less common,” Lipton said.
If you don’t have insurance, you might have to pay a few hundred dollars for glasses, although the amount can vary based on your needs, Lipton said.
If you have a vision insurance plan through an employer, you might have to pay $50 to $100 or less for a pair of glasses. And if you have Medicaid in a state that covers glasses, you might have to pay a few dollars, Lipton said. Each state operates its own Medicaid program, which provides coverage to low-income families.
But a fair number of state Medicaid programs don’t cover eyeglasses if you need vision correction, although the majority do cover routine eye exams, Lipton said.
“There are definitely gaps there,” she said.
For eye exams, if you don’t have vision insurance, you might have to pay $75 to $250.
The majority of people do have dental insurance, at about 88%, but that’s less than the population that has health insurance. In 2022, more than 92% of people in the U.S. had health insurance at some point during the year, according to the Census Bureau.
“If you didn’t have any insurance, then a cleaning, maybe some X-rays, could cost potentially a couple hundred,” Lipton said. Depending on the results of the imaging test, though, a dental patient can rack up a much higher bill.
Lipton said there’s growing recognition of the importance of dental and vision services. “Those services are actually really connected to overall health,” she said.
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