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I am from the northern virginia area. I have a neighbor with relatives in Italy. She said it’s really a bad situation there — her 90 yr old grandmother and family were told that the grandmother would likely not receive care if she became ill. this is what they’re telling their people.

That's horrible and I will keep that poor woman, and all the good people of Italy in my prayers. I truly love Italy and the Italian people, however...

Italy's healthcare system is nothing like what we have here in the US. I was (admittedly briefly) a patient in a hospital in Rome many years ago. It was a truly scary experience. I had had three major surgeries in an excellent hospital in Connecticut before landing in this Italian hospital, so I could recognize a good hospital from a bad one.

All the healthcare workers in this Roman hospital were weirdly proud of their hospital, and the fact the healthcare was "free" under its socialist system. Oh, and most of the doctors and nurses were *smoking* while on duty in the ER. They literally had cigarette butts hanging off their lips as they asked patients questions. This hospital looked like it was out of the 1930s or 40s. How I wish I had an iPhone back then to record it all.

I strongly suspect Italy's government-run healthcare system is the reason many elderly patients do not get the decent care they deserve in their later years. It is truly disgusting, but kind of a fact of life in some (if not all) of these European (and other) countries with government-run healthcare.