U.S. President stated in a Truth Social post on Saturday that he would , asserting that many people there are ill and not getting medical care, even though both of the U.S. Navy’s hospital ships are undergoing maintenance at a shipyard in Alabama.
The announcement led Greenland’s prime minister to defend the region’s healthcare system in a with Trump, who has frequently , a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
Here’s a closer look at the facts:
Trump claims widespread illness exists
Referring to his special envoy to the Arctic territory, Trump said, “Working together with the excellent Governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, we are going to send a great hospital vessel to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick and not being attended to there.”
THE FACTS: There have been no recent reports of major illnesses in Greenland, and it was unclear which ailment Trump was referring to.
According to the Danish Medical Journal, all of Greenland, which has a population of about 57,000, is served by the Queen Ingrid Hospital in the . The territory also has several regional health centers.
Most healthcare services in Greenland are free for citizens and permanent residents. This includes treatment by general practitioners, medical specialists, hospitals, health centers, prescription medications, public dental care, and home nursing care, as per the website of the Nordic Council of Ministers, the official body for intergovernmental cooperation in the Nordic Region.
In response to Trump’s post, emphasized the region’s free healthcare system and made a jibe at the U.S. system by pointing out differences.
“We have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. That is a deliberate choice — and a fundamental part of our society,” Nielsen said. “That’s not how it works in the USA, where seeing a doctor costs money.”
Despite the free healthcare service, there are “major public health challenges” on the vast island, according to the Center for Public Health in Greenland.
Many of these challenges are related to the “profound transition from a hunting society to a modern industrial and knowledge society” within a short period. Increasingly, people are suffering from illnesses such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
Anna Wangenheim, Greenland’s minister for health and persons with disabilities, recently posted an “urgent” request on her Facebook page stating that the “national healthcare service currently needs dentists for 3 different towns: Aasiaat, Paamiut, and Nanortalik.”
Despite difficult access to medical services in remote areas and a shortage of staff, notable improvements have been made in Greenland, which only assumed political responsibility for its own healthcare system in 1992, said Lene Seibæk, a professor at the Institute of Health and Nature at the University of Greenland.
“In 2020, life expectancy in Greenland was approximately 71 years for men and 77 years for women, representing an increase of about six years for men and five to six years for women since the 1990s and exceeding the global average,” Seibæk added.
Trump claims U.S. hospital ship already en route to Greenland
“It’s on its way!!!” Trump wrote in his Truth Social post, stating that one of the hospital ships was already headed to Greenland.
THE FACTS: The USNS Mercy and USNS Comfort are at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, as shown in social media posts from the shipyard in late January featuring the pair of white hospital ships alongside each other. Publicly available ship tracking data show both ships are still in the shipyard.
The Comfort arrived at the shipyard in the southern state on Jan. 23 and is expected to remain there until April, according to the government contract for the work.
Repairs to the Mercy, which arrived there in August, have exceeded the expected completion date. Government contract records show the ship is scheduled for further repairs in March at a shipyard in the northwestern state of Oregon.
Should either ship be rushed out, it would need additional time before being ready for deployment. The standard crew of a U.S. hospital ship does not include the full complement of medical staff required to operate the extensive medical facilities, which include 12 operating rooms and 1,000 hospital beds. Normally, the ships would draw doctors, nurses, corpsmen, and supplies from hospitals near their home ports in Norfolk, Virginia, or San Diego before setting sail.
Trump’s envoy claims service shortage exists
Landry, the Louisiana governor serving as Trump’s special envoy, echoed the president’s claim on Sunday that “many villages and small towns lack basic services that Americans often take for granted.”
Landry added that “small settlements have no permanent doctors, diagnostic tools, or specialist care — forcing residents to travel long distances for vital treatments that should be available at home.”
THE FACTS: While medical services are not physically available in all settlements of the vast territory, telemedicine plays an important role for people living remotely.
Patients in areas without the necessary healthcare can also be transported to the national hospital or regional facilities. In complex cases, patients can be flown to Denmark for medical treatment, with the government covering transportation and treatment costs.
In comparison, rural Americans have long faced challenges in accessing critical healthcare, in part due to financial inequalities and long travel times. The barriers have worsened over the past decade as more close, and and brace for .
Since 2010, 152 rural hospitals, many in the southern U.S., have reduced inpatient services or closed entirely, according to data from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Experts say the expansion of telehealth can alleviate some inequalities, but it is not a universal solution while many rural areas face provider shortages and unreliable broadband.
Landry’s state is no exception. Most of Louisiana’s parishes are fully or partially rural, and 73% of residents live in areas without enough primary care providers, 86% without enough dental providers, and 93% without sufficient mental health providers, according to the .
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Grieshaber reported from Berlin, Toropin from Washington, D.C., and Shastri from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.