I was telling my dad that in most of the world you don't have to pay for healthcare OR school and in some cases pension and my older brother immediately runs out (American Nationalist has entered the chat) and starts bleating about how none of that is true
This directly contradicts my experience with people I've known from the EU who paid fuck all for braces, healthcare, school, etc but he will always say "I know people from there" (which I'm assuming is a bunch of right wing shitheels from 4chan with a boner for the USA and unironic Ukrainians) but I get the feeling he is full of shit
he always tells me "mental health is cheap/free in the USA" when he bludgeons me with that and this also directly contradicts my experience of being told that my dads insurance only covers 4 sessions of therapy and that the copay will be $225 dollars an hour when I was 12
what the hell is the truth lmao
You're basically right, but these countries you're referring to are mostly capitalist, and as such in a constant struggle between workers and capital about how much is public vs private and how well-funded the public is. Think the US and schooling.
So it's a mixed bag. Some are pretty good in certain ways, most are better than the US, but most also struggle to deliver adequate universal health care and post-secondary education for free at the amounts required by the country because capital is always using their powerful tools to undermine these efforts.
To fill these gaps countries introduce all sorts of measures that kind of suck, like tiered health care based on your wealth, or the public system only covers certain things and others you need benefits from work, specialists are free but the wait times are long, or post-secondary is free but there are limited spots, etc.
The degree to which these programs are as good as you're imagining tends to correlate with the degree of class consciousness in the country, but even then if they're not revolutionary they are always under threat of capital strike/flight.
Tl;Dr: you're generally right, but your brother can likely point to accurate examples weaknesses or shortcomings of these systems if he is keyed in. These aren't arguments against public funding though, but arguments for dismantling the ownership class entirely.