Silly question! What happens if you can’t afford hospital care I’m America?

[PrettyLittleLiar20]

This is going to make me sound stupid I know!

So here in the UK we have the nhs and even if you’re working you’re hospital stay and care is free!

So what happens in the US if you work but can’t afford to pay hospital fees? Do you have to pay it in instalments or are things like having a baby and cancer treatment free?

Your not you’re

In America

If you can't afford the fees and have no insurance they turn you away. Unless is is an A&E emergency, in which case, they hound you for the money and you end up destitute. So I've heard.

Wow so if you didn’t have insurance you couldn’t get treated for cancer or have a baby in hospital? Wow we are lucky. I assume if your unemployed then it would be free ?

What willow said. My family is American.

You die.. not great for the most powerful country in the world!
Public provision is basic/poor at best. It's the part of the American dream they don't tell you about...

You either die or end up owing a fortune to the hospital

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-teenager-death-california-health-insurance-care-emergency-room-covid-19-a9429946.html%3famp

You don't always get turned away if you can't afford it. It just means you end up taking out loans that depending on the level of treatment, could end up bankrupting you.

Somone I know in America was miscarrying one of her children at 22 weeks and the ambulance wouldn't take her untill they could provide proof of insurance.

That's crazy! Surely if you show symptoms of covid 19 and this is the case you will end up infecting more people as you won't seek medical advice in this situation

Thing is the whole system is fucked, not just the a and e bit of it. My uncle has a heart problem for which he takes long term medication. The insurer recently said they wouldn’t insure him for the particular medication he was on so he had to switch to another type and it isn’t so well regulated out there in the sense of drugs being the same etc and the one they switched him to nearly killed him. (Literally had another heart attack, cpr etc). He’s now battling with the insurer to go back on the other drug or find a new insurer (hard now he’s had another heart attack!) and in the meantime is dangerously rationing his supply of old heart meds just to keep taking them.

Similar issues for people with asthma and other long term conditions in the USA. Many people just can’t afford the inhalers etc.

Many people in the USA will die of coronavirus simply because they cannot afford any medical treatment. And even if they can afford the initial treatment they won’t be able to continue with any much needed aftercare or medications.

They do have Medicaid/Medicare for people without health insurance. Pretty much emergency care only though, I understand - not sure (and would prefer not to guess) what will happen with CV though

it isn’t so well regulated out there in the sense of drugs being the same etc
As an aside, that's simply not true. They may have refused to pay for his meds & said he should take something different, but it certainly is well regulated. The FDA are very tough on that sort of thing.
Anyway, back to the OP, they have a terrible system & that is where we are headed. I only hope that this crisis makes people appreciate the NHS.

We're not headed to anything remotely like the US system. Both the US and UK systems are extremes and neither are very good. There are however plenty of other countries in the world with an element of mixed provision within a universal system that function perfectly well and are better across all outcomes than either ours or the US.

Sorry, should have made clear that I meant the US and UK systems are extremes in comparison to other western democratic countries. Outside of that group, the US system has more in common with developing nations ie very good outcomes for those who can pay, less so for others. You will get emergency treatment for free if you have absolutely no assets though.

You die or you're bankrupted.

NHS healthcare is free at the point of use. It's not free. It's not some gift from the gods. We all pay for it through taxation.

My sister lives in the USA. Someone in her church needed treatment for cancer and had no insurance. All the members of the church paid for it between them.
If they had not then he wouldn’t have got any treatment and would have died

You die or end up in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of debt.

There's already been reports of people dying of Covid-19 simply because they don't have insurance.

www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-teenager-death-california-health-insurance-care-emergency-room-covid-19-a9429946.html

“The Friday before he died, he was healthy,” the mayor said about the teenager. “By Wednesday, he was dead.” The mayor said the teen “didn’t have insurance, so they did not treat him”.

You die.

I wonder if the 10million people who lost their job in the last few weeks, still thinks universal free healthcare is a bad thing now they're fucked and in the middle of a global pandemic.

You can die in the UK due to being refused treatment too though. Your woman the other week there called 999 and got refused an ambulance and died due to coronavirus. There isn't even a shortage of beds yet either and there certainly wasn't the night she died. I wouldn't be so content that we've got it right given that the UK system is ranked on a par with Romania despite obviously spending far more than they do.

Debt happens or you die..

If you are in active labor, the hospital must take you. They do not have to provide prenatal care, but there are programs available for pregnant women in most states.
If you are having an emergency in a given moment, the hospital has to bring you in and stabilize you. That could be quick, it could be weeks, depending on the condition.

While in the hospital you incur bills. Lots and lots of bills. Sometimes the hospital
Will write off some or all of the bill if they know collecting is hopeless. If you have assets of any kind, they can go after those. Many people who get seriously ill end up declaring bankruptcy.

DD broke her arm last year and required surgery. That cost was about $3000 and was only a 1 night stay. We also have excellent insurance, that 3k was just our portion.

DH was admitted to the hospital last month and had to have many tests done because his transplanted kidney had stopped working properly during an episode of food-poisoning. We haven’t gotten the bills yet, but are hoping our portion of the bill is only around 5k.

They pray, go in to horrific debt, and or die.
Yet still complain about 'libtards and socialists ' that want to change the system.
It is sad, but its not like they haven't had a chance to change it.

I'm an American living in the UK. We went home last summer and I got pneumonia. We had travel insurance but it still requires you to pay out of pocket for treatment and then get reimbursed. I went to an urgent care clinic, they gave me a quick appointment, recommended a chest x-ray and then we had to pay for everything (appointment, x-ray, breathing treatment) before I could access the treatments. But it was okay, because I got a foreigner's 50% discount, so the total was only $2,050. I would not have received treatment without paying, but then it wasn't the ER, and wasn't an emergency (yet -- I could still breathe).

Another anecdote, but from 10 years ago: I was a uni student in the US and had a severe allergic reaction (first and last time in my life). Received ER treatment, got a bill for a couple thousand later in the mail. Ignored it because I was poor. Later got another letter saying they were waiving my ER costs because I was a student. I don't know how common that is or if it was down to my particular state or whether things have changed since.