I’ve Never Wanted To Be An Olympian More After Finding Out The Olympic Village Has Free Healthcare

I thought the best thing about staying in the Olympic Village was getting the coveted chocolate muffins, but I was completely blown away when I found out that Olympians can also get free healthcare at the polyclinic while they’re in Paris.

In a now-viral TikTok, American bronze medal-winning rugby player Ariana “Ari” Ramsey shared her excitement over the feature. “I literally just got a pap smear for free, and I have a dentist appointment and an eye exam next week. Like, what?!” Ramsey said.

She rode a bike to her free dental exam, arriving at the appointment just in time.

And after her eye exam, she got to choose a pair of free glasses, which she picked up just 30 minutes later!

Let’s chat about all things Summer Olympics

Even though she has 20/20 vision, Ari said the doctors prescribed her a pair of glasses because her vision gets blurry sometimes.

“The fact that I’m actually so excited to be getting free dental is crazy. This is gonna be my new fight for action. Free healthcare in America. Period,” Ramsey said in a video she posted after her dental appointment was complete.

“America needs to do better with their healthcare system. There’s no reason why me, an American girl, should be so amazed by free healthcare.” But “we don’t have free healthcare in America, so yeah, I’m amazed by free healthcare,” Ramsey said in another video.

European commenters on TikTok described this kind of treatment as the norm.

According to USA Today, the average American spends $117 per month on employer-covered healthcare and $477 per month on the marketplace.

These prices don’t take into account copays or deductibles, meaning that the services Ari received in Paris would likely have had an additional out-of-pocket cost. Also, healthcare in the US does not include vision or dental coverage, so those would cost extra, too.

For example, Pap smears are largely considered preventative and are often covered by insurance, but can still cost close to $150 for the uninsured. A dental exam with X-rays ranges anywhere from $100–$350. For an eye exam and glasses, VSP says the uninsured cost is usually around $800, which is lowered to $319 with yearly insurance. Getting just those three services alone, Ari saved between $500 and $1,300.

Knowing all this, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the healthcare offerings in Paris sparked commentary about America’s system. Here’s what people are saying:

For the US to be the country that sent the most athletes, has won the most medals at the Olympics, and benefits from over 70 billion dollars in revenue from sports alone, it’s sad that our athletes have to do routine check ups oversees cause its unaffordable here.

— Incognito Period (@MyDaleyVibes) August 8, 2024

Twitter: @MyDaleyVibes

in both good news (reflecting on the ioc) and bad news (the abysmal state of american health insurance) us olympians are now literally cramming a year’s worth of healthcare into 2 weeks in the olympic village since ours is so fucking expensive pic.twitter.com/QyGVoCZX52

— honda/miyake (@andthewaltz) August 3, 2024

Twitter: @andthewaltz

Our country leads all the medals counts, lots of athletes train in our country, and yet our athletes need to access healthcare during the Olympics because they can’t at home. I so glad the Olympics offers these things but it’s also so disappointing.

— Susan Lingle Ŧ (she/her) (@susan_lingle) August 8, 2024

Twitter: @susan_lingle

To be fair it’s great when international events can provide healthcare to participants who are citizens of underprivileged countries

— Mark Dowling (@mark_dowling) August 8, 2024

Twitter: @mark_dowling

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m starting to feel like spending the rest of my life training for and becoming highly skilled in a sport might just be the way to some solid healthcare. That is, if I don’t injure myself getting out of this desk chair.