There are a lot of things I like about living in Sweden. However, there are also many things that drive me crazy. For example, the cable to our house for the phone (and Internet) was broken during the construction of our house. A man from the phone company finally came today, and he did not know where the cable was or that it was even broken. I was so confused as to how this did not get communicated to him. And don't even get me started on why it has taken over 4 months to get someone out here, not to mention that the problem should have been fixed before we moved in. Part of the problem is that there is just one company that can dig, lay, and fix the cables, and it is state-owned. It makes me miss the US and its rules on monopolies.
The pharmacies are also state-operated. There is one chain you can visit for medicine, OTC or prescription, and OTC medicines are ridiculously expensive or non-existent (at least compared to what you can find in the US). I miss being able to go to the grocery store to get Tylenol. You have to make a special trip to an Apotek (what their pharmacies are called) to get simple medicines like that.
One more thing, and then I can stop complaining. They have "free" health care here for children. When you go to the doctor, all you have to give them is the person number (kind of like a SSN in the US), and they don't ask for anything else. That is nice, except that when I had to take AJ to the doctor earlier this year, I could not get through to the doctors' offices to make an appointment. I finally was able to get him an appointment at the children's clinic in the hospital, but only after making several phone calls with my neighbor there to translate for me. We spend more in taxes here than we ever spent on health care (including premiums, co-pays, deductibles, etc.) in the US. Free my foot. And at least I could get through to my doctor and even make an appointment the same day on most days in the US.
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