Gotta love public healthcare

I'm forever grateful to be living not only in a place with decent public healthcare, but close enough to emergency services. I had some health issues last night — nothing major enough to call an ambulance (which is free, btw), but nothing minor that I could ignore — so I took a 10-minute walk to the 24h emergency center at 2AM. By 3AM I had already consulted with the doctor, at 3:30 I was taking some intravenous medication, at 4:30 I was discharged with ibuprofen to take for the next 5 days and antibiotics for the next 10 — all for free. I never used public healthcare emergency in Portugal, but I went with my ex once and it was the same. We got there by 5AM and she was discharged with a diagnosis at around 11AM after doing a full battery of exams. The only difference is that she was charged the incredible sum of 50~70 euros a year later, while in Brazil everything is fully paid for by your taxes, so you owe them 0 reais. The system here is not perfect, tho. Despite being a national…