Hooman Majd explains Iran's hybrid healthcare system, which costs less than America's and covers most citizens through private or government insurance. He describes selective internet censorship: the New York Times is accessible but the New York Post is blocked, while Israeli publications remain reachable. Most Iranians want diplomatic ties with the U.S. based on mutual respect, not subservience.
Chapters
Most people are either privately insured or have government insurance. You can have government insurance, and if you're not insured at all, there are free hospitals and there are charity hospitals as well. So there is and there isn't. I mean, if you have a major operation, you could potentially have a problem if you don't go to the, you know, if you don't have insurance. And there are people who don't have insurance, but you can get insurance through the government, and it's not expensive compared to the United States. It's not quite socialist, like, it's not a socialist model, and it's not quite like northern European countries where there's just universal healthcare paid for by the taxes. But it's also not like America where you really are you know, in trouble if you don't have insurance of any kind. It's exactly like China. They use the same software, American software, which is used by the Iranian authorities. It's very odd though because when I'm in Iran, I always find this really strange. I mean, you'll go on— I can go on the New York Times site, for example, when I'm in Tehran and read the news. I can't go on the New York Post. Then I go to the Jerusalem Post, which is very anti-Iran and is an Israeli newspaper, and that's not blocked. You go on Haaretz, which is a left-wing Israeli paper, less anti-Iran, that's not blocked either. Most of the Iranian people, I would say, if you want to talk about an average Iranian, would like there to be a relationship with America that, again, as I say, based on mutual respect, that also doesn't mean that Iran will become subservient to America or has to do what America says every time. This sense of being a weak power is kind of now gone. Iran doesn't have that sense. The Iranian people don't have that sense anymore. They don't want to be subservient to a foreign power. It's really something that makes them very uncomfortable. And given what they've gone through in the last 30 years and being able to survive on their own as an independent nation, it's a very strong sense now among the Iranian people that we don't need to be subservient to another country. So as long as America doesn't dictate to Iran what to do, how to vote at the UN, how to do this, whether to do this or not do that, I think Iranians would love to see a relation. The vast majority, I think Every poll that has been taken, unofficial poll in Iran, has indicated that. And I think it's true in my own experience talking to, you know, the average Iranian on the street, you know, in homes, from the upper class to the working class. There hasn't been a single person who said, oh no, you know, we can't let the Americans back in this country because they're evil. I have never heard that. It's quite the opposite. No, we would like to have relations, but they have to understand us. They have to respect us. They have to understand who we are.
