Greenland does not need medical assistance from other countries, Denmark has said, after Donald Trump said he was sending a hospital ship to the autonomous Danish territory that he wants to acquire.

“The Greenlandic population receives the healthcare it needs. They receive it either in Greenland, or, if they require specialised treatment, they receive it in Denmark. So it’s not as if there’s a need for a special healthcare initiative in Greenland,” the country’s defence minister, Troels Lund Poulsen, told the Danish broadcaster DR on Sunday.

In Greenland, as in Denmark, access to healthcare is free. There are five regional hospitals across the vast Arctic island, with the Nuuk hospital serving patients from all over the territory.

Mette Frederiksen, the Danish prime minister, defended Denmark’s healthcare system, writing on Facebook that she was “happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all. Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment.”

“You have the same approach in Greenland,” she said, before adding: “Happy Sunday to you all” in front of a blushing, smiling emoji.

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[–] 97 points 8 months ago (4 children)

Ironically, if Greenland ever did become part of the US all those people that Trump is pretending to care about will instantly lose free or even affordable healthcare.

Why is Trump sending free healthcare to other countries while US citizens are dying of easily preventable illnesses because they can't afford medical care? I thought he was all about America first?/s

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  • [–] 36 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Trump sending the hospital ship to Greenland, sending $10B to the Board of Peace...he's such a giving person when it's our money. When it is his own? Not so much...

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  • [–] 59 points 8 months ago

    this is because apparently the other day Denmark provided medical aid to a US Navy Submarine.

    I shit you not. this is Trumps response to that.

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  • [–] 38 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    If china wants to piss of the orange guy they should float medical shisp to the major cities with ports and advertise no charge health services and see the hospitals reee with anger about lost sales

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  • Reminds me of the American town that asked the Soviets for funding during the Cold War. There was a town that was essentially cut off without a bridge, and the local American government was dragging their feet with funding the construction. The town sent a letter to the USSR asking for humanitarian aid, who happily agreed to fund the bridge as a giant “fuck you” to the Americans. Suddenly, the American government was more than happy to fund the bridge as soon as the “USSR sending money to the US because America can’t afford to build their own bridges” news headlines broke and they had egg on their face.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    Damn that would be hilarious. It could absolutely turn into a no-win scenario for the orange clown. Turn away free healthcare by running the ships out of town or let them stay and piss off the American healthcare operators?

    We all know which option he’d choose. He’d have a lot more friends running the system than stuck inside of it.

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  • [–] 35 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    If he sent a hospital boat to any city in the US, it would fill up with needy Americans

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  • [–] 33 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    "Greatest country on earth" moment. What could we possibly give Greenland that they don't already have? Measles??

    Meanwhile the leading cause of bankruptcy here is medical debt 👍

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago*

    That's how they are gonna take over Greenland;

    give them free medical supplies* ^shipping,handling,dispensing,and^ ^all^ ^the^ ^other^ ^insane^ ^fees^ ^not^ ^included^

    bill them

    Now American bank owns Greenland!

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  • [–] 30 points 8 months ago (4 children)

    You understood all wrong! The ship is sailing not to provide help. It sails to receive help.

    :)

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 8 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    They can't. That's the reason why they send ship to Greenland.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I don't think others should subsidise American healthcare. We pay for our healthcare via taxes, it's not right for the Americans to mooch off of that.

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  • [–] 26 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    There's also the minor detail that both hospital ships have been in drydock for refit and maintenance since last July and they aren't going anywhere.

    So Trump made up some bullshit, without checking to see if it was even do-able.

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    [–] 26 points 8 months ago (3 children)

    Now i am pretty sure Denmark has no hospital ship but imagine if they would send hospital ship to the US with free healthcare.

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  • [–] 19 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

    Maersk has the opportunity to help the Danish government do the funniest thing

    Edit: the more I think about this the more I wish they would, but it'd probably take 3 years and cost half a billion euro to bring a new hospital ship online. I wonder if they could borrow one from somebody. Fill it with European medical staff, send it to Corpus Christi. Start treating us like the developing nation we are.

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    Corpus Christi reference on Lemmy?!

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago

    Honestly it's where I'd send it if I was doing a propaganda op. It's a show of Danish excess capacity, it makes sense to target it at an area that supports Trump. You could do New York I guess, but Mamdani being mayor muddies the optics. Corpus Christi is like a top ten conservative city, it's a port, and it's got a ton of people who are underserved. CC is perfect. Roll up with 1000 beds and offer free medical care at a Danish standard, more or less, and start publishing people's stories about how they can't get basic care.

    Kinda like the Vulcan Bridge. If you embarrass the hell out of Uncle Sam he'll eventually do the right thing.

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  • [–] 21 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    So that hospital boat will turn around to serve americans in american coastal cities right? Right???

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  • [–] 21 points 8 months ago

    Meanwhile my 1 year old has a pretty routine surgery scheduled for next month that will cost me close to $30k after insurance.

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  • [+] 20 points 8 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago (2 children)

    I am legitimately wondering if Trump would be stupid enough to do this. I'm sure it would violate all kinds of conventions, and would ensure no US ship would ever dock anywhere ever again, but at the same time I don't think that would stop him.

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  • [–] 6 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    I'm sure it would violate all kinds of conventions

    Correct.

    and would ensure no US ship would ever dock anywhere ever again

    Unfortunately extremely unlikely, given the current world order of the US being effectively exempt from all rules and most consequences.

    I'm not saying there wouldn't be SOME consequence, but it would be nowhere near as robust as that..

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  • [–] 36 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    That's hilarious. "You know what those Danish citizens need? American healthcare!" Who comes up with this stuff?

    Also,

    writing that she was "happy to live in a country where there is free and equal access to health for all. Where it’s not insurances and wealth that determine whether you get proper treatment."

    I would love to have a head of state as competent and sensible as her!

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago

    it's a fucking trojan horse

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  • [–] 13 points 8 months ago

    Trojan horse type shit

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  • [–] 11 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    The skeptic in me says its a trojan horse and is a covert military ship to posture more assets in the area.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    Seriously. And if Denmark did anything to intercept it, he could use that as casus belli to start a war. Remember the USS Maine? Of To Hell with Spain, Remember the Maine? Seizing or sinking a hospital ship is still an attack against a US Navy vessel, and it would be played in the media as an act of utter barbarity.

    On the other hand, the ship could be used as a tool for war even if Denmark lets it dock. How hard do you think it would be for the CIA to arrange some false-flag or instigated terrorist attack against the hospital ship? Imagine if the hospital ship is docked and stormed by a bunch of armed gunmen, dubbed in the media as "radical Danish nationalists." The US could then use that as justification to start "anti-terrorism activities," which gradually grow into an outright occupation of the island. No clean formal start to war that would serve as as source of international outrage and could fracture NATO like a gunshot. The US already has large military presence in Greenland, but this would represent a massive expansion of that. And, over time, an ever-increasing US military presence and control over civilian areas. Think less Spanish American War and more of how Russia slowly occupied vast areas of Eastern Ukraine in the years before the breakout of the major overt war.

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  • [–] 12 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    As if anyone in Greenland would want the substandard American healthcare, particularly with Mr. Brain-worm toilet-licker in charge of things now. Anyone visiting that ship is more likely to come away with some new disease like measles and a prescription to horse dewormer than they are actual healthcare. Greenland should put up a giant quarantine zone around the ship.

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  • [–] 1 point 8 months ago

    There are tons of issues with healthcare in the US, but quality of care isn't one of them. Go to any major hospital in the US and you'll receive world-class treatment, you'll just most likely spend years paying it off.

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    "Have you seen the prices on that boat?" - Every European with a national health service

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  • [–] 5 points 8 months ago

    Sink it. 'Accidentally', of course...

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  • 10 comments in c/world@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 41 points 8 months ago (1 child)

    “Working with the fantastic Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there,”

    Maybe he could send it to Louisiana?

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  • [–] 31 points 8 months ago

    Wow. Americans could use that boat. Greenland has health care covered. For free.

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  • [–] 14 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

    USA (kakistocracy) is a meme country. Doin' it for the lulz.

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  • [–] 10 points 8 months ago

    Yeah Greenland, join America so you can enjoy our world famous healthcare and drug pricing!

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  • [–] 7 points 8 months ago

    "Not yet they don't"

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  • [–] 3 points 8 months ago

    It's like the alternate ending to Elysium - instead of the hospital ships coming down to help all the sick and injured poor people, ships are coming from the leaders of the sick and poor people going to help make a few extra rich people better (rich as in socially wealthy, like with healthcare)

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  • [–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)