A bittersweet day as it was our last day in Buenos Aires. I’ve had an amazing time exploring this amazing city, learning about their cultures, and obviously learning about their healthcare system. For our last full day, we slept in a bit and then had presentations for each of our sectors. I loved listening to everyone’s presentations and seeing how they wrapped up all the information we learned over the past 2 weeks into their presentation. We then celebrated our last night with some good steaks and got all packed up for travel day.
During this trip, I have learned so much that I’m not sure that I could pinpoint the most important thing that I have learned. To start I learned so much about a country that believes that healthcare is a right and that everyone should have free access to treatment. On the outside, this looks like a great thing, which it is but it doesn’t come without its challenges. The public sector in Argentina is severely underfunded, leaving the public hospitals to not be in the best shape, while the privately funded privately are some of the nicest hospitals I have ever seen. There is a very big social gap in the healthcare system, if you are wealthy you can afford the nice private insurance but if you are low-income you have to use the free underfunded public system. It made me think about how having free healthcare is so important because even though these people are not receiving treatment in the fanciest place, they still get help from people who care for free. There still needs to be work on their system to help the private sector.
Along with learning about the healthcare system in Argentina, I learned a lot about being more of an adult. We were all together most of the time but we all were either 18 or 19 and our first time in a foreign country without our parents. I learned a lot about how to get around in a place where I didn’t speak the same language and it opened my eyes to other cultures. I’m so grateful for this experience and for everyone in Argentina who welcomed us and took time out of their busy schedules to teach us about their country.
