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Original poster

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

166 replies

PrettyLittleLiar20 · 02/04/2020 19:38

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?

OP posts:
Northernsoullover · 03/04/2020 07:58

I am starting to think that Xenia is my vile SIL Grin.

Makeitgoaway · 03/04/2020 08:16

I saw footage of "bodies" (actually it was a body but the commentator said bodies) being loaded onto a refrigerated truck by fork lift. Maybe I'm being naive and/or maybe it doesn't matter once you're dead but I don't think we would do that. Even in war time UK affords the dead more respect than that.

8by8 · 03/04/2020 08:28

Xenia is real - I know her real life identity (which obviously I would never reveal) and what she has said on here and other forums is consistent.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about this subject:

General health
NekoShiro · 03/04/2020 08:28

Apprantly they've said that you can't apply for a new insurance policy during a pandemic, so if you were American right now aand wanted to get medical insurance you'd be denied, so many people are about to die in America :/

00100001 · 03/04/2020 09:41

@Xenia

You gave birth using no NHS resources at all? Your kids didn't ever get dentist treatment for free? They didn't get their imms? I bet you've used the NHS more than once...

Standrewsschool · 03/04/2020 09:49

Having the NHS means we don’t have to worry about our healthcare. In the last ten years, I’ve been treated for breast cancer and had operations . At no point did we have to worry about whether we could afford it.

The NHS means this stress is taken out of our lives.

macaroniandpizza · 03/04/2020 09:56

I couldnt comprehend the uk having a system like america. The uk is a shambles in a lot of respects and yes at times the nhs can get things wrong but im so bloody thankful that we have it and that nobody is refused treatment. Can you imagine it like america where treatment is determined on the size of your wallet? Its a horrifying thought

KenDodd · 03/04/2020 10:15

Surely nobody with an ounce of humanity, would prefer to bring in an American system of healthcare? It’s shameful @Xenia**

The world is full of people without an ounce of humanity sadly.

fairnessshairmess · 03/04/2020 10:18

The U.K. cannot keep going the way it is. My guess is that it's system will change to look something like the Australian or Irish system.

KenDodd · 03/04/2020 10:22

I still think there must be specific laws in place for pandemics, suspending the normal system?

I read once in the UK we have civil servants tasked with finding mass grave sites and underground shelters, field hospitals etc. Just in normal times, because at some point we might need them and so we need to know this stuff in advance. Pandemic planning must have been a thing in America as well?

KenDodd · 03/04/2020 10:28

The U.K. cannot keep going the way it is

Why not?
All the other systems involved citizens paying more money. Why can't we just pay that money through tax in better fund our health service? Surely that's got to be cheaper than introducing a whole layer of bureaucracy with insurance and co payment? For what it's worth, we have private medical insurance (in the UK) it's a fucking nightmare trying to get anything approved because of the number of hoops they make you jump through. Personally I'd much rather the extra money was spent on the NHS the hoops were taken away and everybody had better treatment.

KenDodd · 03/04/2020 10:32

How does the US manage with mental illness?

I assume people can be sectioned there? If so, can they force someone into hospital against their will, force them to have treatment and medication they don't want and then give them a big bill at the end?

Toomboom · 03/04/2020 10:46

I have wondered what is going to all those in the US who are now unemployed due to CV. Their insurance will no longer be valid, so no insurance, no care.
It is the insurance company who decides what medication you can have. A doctor can tell you the best one for you illness, but if the insurer doesn't agree they won't pay for it, or you have to go on a cheaper option. Or they decide that they just aren't going to pay as they know better.

Give me the NHS any day, it may not be perfect, but it is far better than anything the US offers.

Balhammom · 03/04/2020 10:49

Having lived in the US, their private healthcare is way better than he NHS but if you’re not covered you’re in big trouble.

I think the other Western European systems (eg France, Germany) probably often the best balance between affordability/access and quality of care. Certainly my experience of German healthcare has been excellent and it is no coincidence that all my German friends fly home for any procedures rather than take treatment on the NHS.

Chipsahoy · 03/04/2020 11:11

My Dh is American and my best friend loves there right now. My best friend is very ill and has no money or insurance, he is being treated anyway. He's had two heart attacks a few yrs ago and has bills but as he has no money they leave him alone.

My Dh certainly would never go to hospital unleas desperate as excess from insurance is high. When he was a child his parents had no money and a few times he should have gone in for stitches but knew the bill would be too huge so they didn't.

However, they don't turn dying people away, they don't refuse to take you in ambulance. Certain hospitals may but there are plenty of care centre's which will take you money or not. The majority will then send you a bill but if you don't have the money, what can they do? It's brutal in a lot of ways but their health care is far superior to ours. Although sometimes things are too medicalised, such as labour and birth, because of the sue and lawsuit culture they have.

itsallamysterytome · 03/04/2020 11:44

I become anxious whenever there is talk of privatising the NHS.
There is not much that would have me marching through the streets of London with a placard but that is the one.

Imagine watching your loved ones die slowly because you cant afford to help them. Helping you partner decide which of the three fingers you want sewn back on as you can't afford all three.

I have lifetime thyroid issues and belong to an online group with both UK and US contributors. The UK people talk a lot about symptoms, which medication they want and getting information. The US people talk about symptoms, having no medication at all due to cost and where it is cheapest (spending a lot of time and energy tracking it down). They do seem to see a lot more specialists, but then that hikes costs. They worry so much about insurance payments, it paying out and how they are suffering when it stops.

After a couple of years of reading their posts I know I would fight tooth and nail to keep the NHS.

To be in a zero hour, part time, low paid role (that will be the key workers in this country then) in the midst of a pandemic doesn't bear thinking about.

ArriettyJones · 03/04/2020 11:48

How does the US manage with mental illness?

I assume people can be sectioned there?

Don’t they call it a “psychiatric hold” in the states? Beyond that I won’t try to comment because I’m drawing most of my info from Britney Spears’ mental breakdown and Carrie in Homeland Smile

TerrorWig · 03/04/2020 11:59
  1. They don’t treat you and you die
  2. They do treat you and you are presented with a bill and made destitute

It’s a despicable situation.

Santaclauswhosthat · 03/04/2020 12:08

@Balhammom agree with you. For those with good plans, the standard of care is incredible.

Also don't forget that all the money sloshing around means that the US has been a major driver in many medical breakthroughs in the last 50 years, something which people have benefited from globally. No system is all bad.

As for people being refused treatment, this definitely happens in the UK also. Not so much as in turned away at the door, although people are certainly refused ambulances which can amount to the same thing, but in terms of restrictions on treatments and surgeries decided by CCGs and hospital trusts which of course are financial decisions based on cost/ benefit and logistics, same as in the US.

Agree that a mixed system seems to be the one that yields the best results long term.

Look at what's happening in the UK in the current crisis - theoretically a free at point of entry system should be the very best model to have during an epidemic but instead many clinicians are not providing treatment or indeed physically seeing patients at all - this is true across all sectors including GP care and dentistry and it's not because they are being redeployed to eg covid wards or whatever.
Maybe if we had more of a tangible financial stake in the service that we do fund they wouldn't be able to do this.

LilacTree1 · 03/04/2020 12:12

Um....my family in the US have said you get treated as normal but certain bills are dropped

I can assure you, they don’t leave people dying in the street under normal circumstances

Massive political agenda with some posters.

Likethebattle · 03/04/2020 13:52

I did watch an episode of Oprah once where an worth says to get your bill and barter, ‘paracetamol $20, I’ll give you $5....tongue depressor $5, how a bout $1?’ He said find out the prices and be prepared to get them to charge correctly rather than trying to profit.

TerrorWig · 03/04/2020 14:14

@LilacTree1 people don’t go to hospital because they can’t afford it. They don’t let people die in the streets but epileptics (for example) have been known to wear bracelets saying ‘don’t call an ambulance’ because they’d rather have a seizure and not have to pay a bill afterwards.

It’s not a ‘massive political agenda’ to say the system favours the rich and the elite, leaving vast amounts of the population dying or suffering needlessly. It’s the truth.

DontPetTheSweatyStuff · 03/04/2020 14:21

My aunt has lived in the US all her adult life. Her husband is now at end of life care and it sounds so hard and undignified.

She had to carry him to the car and drive him to the hospital the other week, the ambulance would have cost $3000 and the insurance wouldn't cover it. They refused him home help and medication unless he stopped taking the painkillers he was on.

That's the only knowledge I have on US medical care and it sounds awful.

LilacTree1 · 03/04/2020 14:34

Terror yes. But there seems to be more extreme ideas here.

LilacTree1 · 03/04/2020 14:35

“Her husband is now at end of life care and it sounds so hard and undignified.”

I had to demand dad be given end of life drugs here 🤷🏻‍♀️