Adventures of a Gringa

Survey: Health Care

Given the huge landmark decision on health care reform in the United States, I thought it would be interesting to get a feel for how Brazilians and Americans view health care, and the current system in place in each country.

For those living/who have lived in Brazil: have you ever used the public system? Do you have private insurance? Are you happy with the care you get? Would you make any changes to the health care system, if any?

For those living/who have lived in the US: do you have health insurance? Are you happy with the current system? Are you satisfied with the care you get? What do you think about the reform? What changes would you make to the current system, if any?

For those who have lived in both countries, what could each country learn from the other's system? Which one do you prefer?

While I'm skeptical that the reform is ever going to really happen, I hope that it will be an improvement on the broken system we have now. I'm hoping that if all goes well, the law will go into effect sooner rather than later, since I have tenuous coverage and Eli has none at all. While public health care is far from perfect in Brazil, it's definitely an important safety net, and the experiences I had with it were all positive. Still, I've heard and read about plenty of stories about long waits, supply shortages, and personnel shortages. Rio in particular has some infamous inner city hospitals. But on the other hand, private care is often very good. In my experience, the private clinics I went to were excellent and infinitely cheaper than in the US (one of the most memorable experiences I had was the eyeball incident). In the US, it seems we may never have a truly public system, but bringing down costs for private care--ones more on par with Brazilian costs--seems like a distant but hopeful possibility.

Poll

Since it's a census year, I thought I'd put up a few polls to get a feel for where the blog is at in terms of readership. Last time I checked, it was over 70% Brazilians. But I'd like to get some new info, too so if you have a minute, all you have to do is click!

For the first question, I'm interested in seeing how people discovered the blog. For the second question, I'm interested in your country of origin, where you were born and grew up. Finally, I'm interested in seeing how many readers are in the blogosphere.

Thanks everyone!

American Expats Poll

Today's poll is for Americans living abroad. I'm posing the same question as last week, except this time for expat American gringos. The question is: what do you miss most about home? That is, excluding the obvious of family and friends.

Feel free to add your own answers in the "other" option.

Survey: What do you miss most about Brazil?

Today's question is for Brazilian expats living abroad and gringos that used to live in Brazil that no longer live here.

The question is: what do you miss most about Brazil? [This question excludes the obvious answer of family and friends. Aside from them, what do you miss?]

Rio Gringa Poll: Big Brother

I'm starting up the polls again, so let's get to it. Today's poll is open to people currently living in Brazil, including foreigners.

Brazilian Poll Year Round Up

I only started doing polls recently, but I wanted to take a look at the results. They're by no means scientific or necessarily statistically valid, but the results are interesting nonetheless. To see the poll archives, click here.

Brazilian-only Polls

Showering: nearly 59% of Brazilians polled shower two or more times per day, with nearly 8% showering three or more times per day.

Television: Just over 50% of Brazilians polled have three or more televisions in their home, while 20% have just one and 23% have four or more.

Novelas: Only 29% of Brazilian polled claim they regularly watch telenovelas.

Stereotypes: 43% of Brazilians polled say that the most common stereotype they encounter is that Brazilians are nymphomaniacs and/or sexually promiscuous. About 21% say the most common stereotype is that all Brazilians live in the rainforest.

Gringos & Brazilians Living in Brazil

Maids: Of the Brazil-dwellers polled, 58% have a maid, while nearly 16% have a live-in maid.

Brazil Travelers/Dwellers

Rio Safety: 37% of those polled say they feel "somewhat safe" in Rio, while 34% say they feel "not very safe." 23% say they feel like they're "in constant danger."

Favorite City: Nearly 30% of those polled say Rio is their favorite city in Brazil, followed by 22% for Sao Paulo and 14% for Florianopolis.

Open Polls

US in the World: 53% of those polled say the US has done more bad things in the past 30 years, while 32% say the US has done more good things.

Labels: 89% of those polled say Brazilians cannot be considered Hispanic, while 11% say they can be.

My Blog: Nearly 42% of readers polled say they have a more positive view of Brazil after reading my blog, while about 50% say they have the same view of Brazil.

Rio Gringa Poll: Nationality

Today, I want to find out the nationalities of my readers, since I have readers from all over the world, but many are expats, like Brazilians living in Canada and Americans living in Brazil. So the purpose of today's poll is to find out your country of origin, where you originally come from. If you put "other," please leave a comment saying where you're from!