American living in Turkey explains why she's 'horrified' by the US healthcare system, sparks debate

As a child, we would've never felt the need to worry about paying for a doctor as our parents would've got it covered. But, when we become an adult and start earning, healthcare costs come off as a bolt out of the blue. With myriads of advancements in the field of medicine, many countries provide affordable healthcare to their citizens. Kayleigh Ogut (@kayleighogut) posted on TikTok a clip in which she shared her utter shock when she found how affordable dental care was in Turkey compared to her homeland, the United States. Being an American herself, she was too impressed by Turkish healthcare and couldn't help but appreciate it.

Ogut is a TikTok content creator who lives in Turkey after being married to a Turkish man. She shares a lot of content about her life in Turkey as an American woman and often gets asked by her followers if she wants to move back to the United States. Ogut explained in her video why she was skeptical about moving back to her country by sharing her experience with dental care in Turkey. She mentioned that she visited a dentist in Turkey to have a root canal and added that it was mainly to "fix a root canal that an American dentist messed up". "They X-rayed me three times. My American dentist never X-rayed it," she said.

Ogut explained that the Turkish dentist X-rayed her teeth multiple times to "make sure the filling was fully taking up the space." She also added that while her American dentists said that it was impossible to bleach her teeth, the Turkish dentist got it done. "They never even broke the crown of the tooth that if they had broken would have needed to be replaced. They didn't break it," she said. To Ogut, this experience with Turkish dental care was "the most superb, fantastic, incredible dental care I've ever had." 

The most surprising part about Ogut's experience, apart from the perfect execution of the root canal, was that it cost her just $7. She said that the root canal treatment she had in the United States came out to $6000 and it wasn't effective too as she had to get it fixed by a Turkish dentist again. "My husband and I genuinely do not know how we could ever say goodbye to the health care here," said Ogut in response to people asking her if she wanted to move back to her country. "Honestly, I can’t express the shock and horror I have at my country’s health care," she captioned her video which gained over 5.5 million views. 

Though Ogut turned off her comments for the TikTok video when it was shared by a Turkish healthcare organization, Global Healthcare Services (@turkish_medicals) it gained over 8.8 million views sparking a debate in the comments. Some shared Ogut's opinion over the expensive American healthcare system while others pointed out that Turkey had some flaws too. "Our healthcare is abysmal and insurance is insane. Why no one is doing anything to change this is insane," wrote @zenia. "Regarding medical services, Turkey has one of the best systems. She paid $7 because she had her husband's medical insurance," wrote @benndiev.

Defending the United States, @wrestlingcoachd wrote, "All the Americans in the comments are criticizing America because they don't realize in Turkey if you make $62k a year you pay $25k in taxes, which is how this stuff is paid for." Another user, @justhipgnosis, commented, "Turkey has a lot of problems though. The good healthcare doesn't absolve the state of its crimes."