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.

  • lonefighter@sh.itjust.works
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    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

    • Lukas Murch@thelemmy.club
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      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…

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        Don’t forget that he gave $40 Billion to Argentina in the middle of a government shutdown where we had stopped giving food to our own poor citizens.

          • madde@feddit.org
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            Why you guys in the US are not running around with pitchforks and torches is still unbelievable to me…

              • lolrightythen@lemmy.world
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                If not the ghoulish pigs, at least 1/3 of my neighbors would probably jump at the chance for some patriotic violence.

                • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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                  Yeah, a lot of people don’t realize how deeply unstable a lot of “ordinary americans” really are.

                  For a long time they thought it was a land of progress because of what was essentially just effective marketing. A well-managed PR department and tight control of the public narrative.

                  A lot of people with fascistic tendencies weren’t really on the internet until around when trump entered politics. Then all these right-wing grifters started popping up and radicalizing large swaths of people.

                  Before then, people thought America was sane. It wasn’t, the insane people just kept to themselves for the most part. That’s the only thing that’s changed, really…

  • wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz
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    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!

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

    • ebolapie@lemmy.world
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      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.

        • ebolapie@lemmy.world
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          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.

  • rozodru@piefed.world
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    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.

  • NutWrench@lemmy.ml
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    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.

    • ameancow@lemmy.world
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      The whole thing reads like just another “side story” to keep media from being able to keep up with any one story and/or to feed various sides what will trigger them to continue to create distracting stories without actual investment.

    • WoodScientist@lemmy.world
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      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.

  • 2hundredpancakes@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    “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 👍

  • chuck@lemmy.ca
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    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

    • mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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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.

    • joelfromaus@aussie.zone
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      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.

  • neomachino@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    Meanwhile my 1 year old has a pretty routine surgery scheduled for next month that will cost me close to $30k after insurance.

        • Leon@pawb.social
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          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.

          • Lembot_0006@programming.dev
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            Trump: You pathetic communo-socialists! Your civilization is crumbling! 20% tariffs! No, 25! No, 23! Yes, 21! Covfefe! Arghg-hg-hg, pffffft…

    • Smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works
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      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.

      • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        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…

        • Smuuthbrane@sh.itjust.works
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          Agreed on all points. As much as I’d love to think this would instantly isolate them, that’s even beyond wishful thinking.