U.S. President Donald Trump said in a post on The Truth Society on Saturday that he would send a hospital ship to Greenland, claiming that many people there were sick and not being treated, even though two U.S. Navy hospital ships were undergoing maintenance at an Alabama shipyard at the time of his post.
Publicly available ship tracking data shows one of the ships, the Mercy, went to sea on Tuesday. The ship’s destination is unclear from public data, and Pentagon officials did not comment when asked about its destination.
Trump’s posts prompted Greenland’s prime minister to defend Greenland’s health care system in the latest friction with Trump, who has frequently spoken of seizing Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.
Let’s take a closer look at the facts:
Trump claims disease is widespread
“We’re going to work with the wonderful governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, to send a great hospital ship to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick and not getting care there,” Trump said of his Arctic envoy.
FACTS: There have been no recent reports of major illnesses in Greenland, and it’s unclear which illness Trump was referring to.
According to the Danish Medical Journal, Greenland as a whole has a population of about 57,000 people and is served by Queen Ingrid Hospital in the capital, Nuuk. The territory also houses several regional health centres.
Most health care services in Greenland are free for citizens and permanent residents. The website of the Nordic Council of Ministers, the official body for intergovernmental cooperation in the Nordic region, says this includes general practitioners, medical specialists and treatment in hospitals, health centres, prescription medicines, dental care and home care.
In response to Trump’s post, Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens Frederik Nielsen highlighted the region’s free health care system and called out the mockery of the U.S. system.
“We have a public health care system where treatment is free to citizens. This is a thoughtful choice and a fundamental part of our society,” Nelson said. “This is not the case in the United States, where medical care costs money.”
Greenland’s Center for Public Health said that despite free medical services, the vast island faced “significant public health challenges”.
Many of these challenges are related to experiencing “profound changes from a hunting society to a modern industrial and knowledge society” in a short period of time. More and more people are suffering from conditions such as obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Greenland’s Minister of Health and Disability, Anna Wangenheim, recently posted an “urgent” request on her Facebook page, stating that “the National Health Service currently needs dentists for 3 different towns: Aasiaat, Paamiut and Nanortalik.”
Lene Seibæk, a professor at the University of Greenland’s Institute of Health and Nature Research, said Greenland had made significant progress by only taking political responsibility for its own health care system in 1992, despite difficulties in accessing medical services in remote areas and staff shortages.
Seibæk added: “In 2020, life expectancy in Greenland was about 71 years for men and 77 years for women. This has increased by about 6 years for men and 5 to 6 years for women since the 1990s, exceeding the global average.”
Trump says US hospital ship has headed to Greenland
“Already on the way!!!” Trump wrote in his Truth Society post that one of the hospital ships was already headed to Greenland.
FACTS: Until Tuesday, the USS Mercy and USS Comfort were anchored at a shipyard in Mobile, Alabama, according to publicly available ship tracking data.
The Comfort arrived at a shipyard in the southern state on January 23 and is expected to stay there until April under a government engineering contract.
The Mercy arrived there in August and repairs are past the expected completion date, but ship tracking data showed the ship put to sea on Tuesday.
It was unclear from public data where the ship was headed, and Pentagon officials did not comment when asked. However, government contract records show the ship is scheduled to undergo more repairs at a northwest Oregon shipyard in March.
If the Mercy is directed to deploy to Greenland, it will still need more time before it is ready to deploy. The standard crew size for a U.S. hospital ship does not include all the medical personnel needed to manage a massive medical facility, including 12 operating rooms and 1,000 beds. Typically, both ships draw doctors, nurses, medical personnel and supplies from hospitals around their home ports of Norfolk, Virginia or San Diego before sailing.
Trump envoy claims service shortages
Louisiana Gov. Landry, who serves as Trump’s special envoy, echoed the president’s statement on Sunday on the X that “many villages and small towns lack basic services that Americans often take for granted.”
Landry added, “Small settlements do not have resident doctors, diagnostic tools or specialist care, forcing residents to travel long distances to receive vital treatments that should be available at home.”
Fact: While medical services are sometimes not available in all settlements over a wide area, telemedicine plays an important role for people living remotely.
Patients in areas without necessary health care may also be transported to state hospitals or regional facilities. In complex cases, patients can fly to Denmark for treatment, with the government paying for transportation and treatment costs.
In contrast, rural areas in the United States have long faced challenges in accessing critical health care, in part due to economic inequality and long travel times. These obstacles have become more severe over the past decade as more maternity wards have closed, pharmacies have struggled to stay open, and rural hospitals and clinics have braced for federal Medicaid cuts.
Since 2010, 152 rural hospitals, many in the southern United States, have cut inpatient services or closed entirely, according to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Experts say the expansion of telemedicine could alleviate some inequalities, but it’s not a universal solution as many rural areas face provider shortages and unreliable broadband.
Landry’s situation is no different. Most Louisiana parishes are fully or partially rural, with 73 percent of residents living in areas without enough primary care providers, 86 percent without enough dental providers and 93 percent without enough mental health providers, according to the state health department.
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Grishaber reported from Berlin, Tolopin reported from Washington, and Shastri reported from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.
