What do Americans do if they have no healthcare?

[summeriscomingsoon]

Seeing posts on Reddit about the costs of routine medical visits and the astronomical breakdown of figures charged, but I'm assuming these are all covered by health insurance.

But what if you have no insurance. What happens if you get cancer etc. Are you left to die?

@Milomonster

Absolutely fascinating thread. Thanks for starting it. Reading about personal experiences deapite knowing how awful access is in the US has been an eye opener. Please could posters tell me the titles of documentaries to watch. I could t find the Louis Theroux one mentioned.

Watch Sicko by Michael Moore on Youtube.

I'm the poster who made the comment about gynecologists and women's healthcare. It has been implied that the gynecologist does the pap smear and pelvic exam in order to unnecessarily operate on them - in order to make extra $$$$$.

For some reason this really pissed me off so let me clear this up the best I can. The gynecologist usually is not the surgeon. If he found something amiss he'd refer the woman to a OB/GYN surgeon. No woman here has to take her knickers off for her GP or his nurse. When we need birth control, pap smears, general reproductive health checks, breast exams etc we make an appointment with our gynecologist and/or obstetrician of our choice. We also select our GP and it is not based on where we live. I travel up to 100 miles to see my favorite doctor.

A full pelvic exam involves more than a pap smear and is considered important for a woman's (reproductive) health. Ovaries are palpitated and other workings are examined. Cancers not just related to the cervix can be detected during a full pelvic exam. Also during the visit any concerns/worries can be discussed. This is considered very important for women and their reproductive health. The insurance companies encourage these exams to head things off at the pass -catch things early.

Other points/questions I read here I'd like to broach.

No, the fire service/emergency services don't bill you for dragging you out of a burning building, car etc.

Doctors are rich or well off here.

When dashing into the emergency room (A&E) you just have to have your insurance card handy. There's no more lengthy paperwork as we're all in the system.

Biden is useless. Trump got the insulin costs down and Biden put them back up. Democrats are not your friend.

We have poor maternal outcomes here because of our complete freedom to be stupid. 47 years ago I decided to martyr myself by having all my prenatal care and birth at DC General hospital, thankfully now gone. It was an inner city hospital that catered to poor intercity/ghetto and the inmates of the connected DC jail. I spent over two weeks as patient there before and after the birth. The women didn't give a single fuck about the the well being of their unborn/newborn babies. There was drug abuse, drinking, extremely poor diets and immense ignorance. It was shocking say the least. Hospitals such as the DC General are where most of the poor maternal outcomes and infant mortalities are coming from. If you want a healthy baby you can. Mine was very healthy. It's the attitude and behaviors of the mothers not the doctors/staff.

An interesting note. Last night when I was typing my comment I wrote that we were have a small earthquake. Our house started shaking, porch furniture jumping about, banging coming from somewhere. My dog sat up and looked at the door. I called my son who lives the other side of the meadow and asked him if he felt/heard it and he said no but his girlfriend just ran outside. He naturally thought she was considerately breaking wind outside, but then she told him she heard loud banging.

Mystery solved. 9:02 pm last night the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket had flown directly over our house and crashed! Nothing to fear though because thank god we have good insurance and Elon Musk is rich, lol.

teenageromance people also tend to work much later in America. I've noticed on holiday there that Walmart, Disney etc employ elderly people 80 plus as greeters etc. It's rare to see someone that age working in UK whereas it's common. I assume to ensure they get work heathcare.

I doubt it, you can't fly when heavily pregnant so you would need the means to support your self for a couple of months. Much easier to go to Mexico or Canada.

About 10/12 years ago a lady from the ME travelled to the UK in the very final stages of pregnancy. She had had fertility treatment and was carrying 6 babies. It cost over £500,000.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/7097382.hospital-seeks-sextuplet-care-cash/

You can't tell me no-one knew she was pregnant when she flew over. She risked going into labour in mid-air, and dying along with her children, in order to abuse our health service..

@MariposaLilly I see your point about life choices and maternal outcomes. However, it is interesting because I would have thought that you would have similar people making poor decisions in other countries. So, if that is the cause of the maternal death rates being higher in the US why do you think it is a much bigger problem than the UK/Germany/France etc? It cant be that Americans are more stupid than other countries (ridiculous stereotype) so why? (genuine question, not being goady)

i agree with ya all the way! This country is doing very well to eb where we are and in fact, i think the current economy is growing!

@PaterPower

So I am tired too of people scaremongering and stating that we will soon have the same system as the US. We wont but the NHS is in need of serious reform. Some part payment type scenario like the majority Europe would be a start

We wouldn’t need any elements of the creeping privatisation if the Tories, and Blair’s version of Labour, hadn’t made and then reversed so many changes designed to introduce “competition” (aka divert cash to their mates and to companies they want to work for after finishing in politics) and stuffed the NHS full of badly performing managers.

We could also do so much more for the NHS if we stopped wasting money on white elephants like HS2, stopped spaffing cash on the big consultancy firms and finally realised that our “independent” nuclear deterrent a) isn’t independent and b) doesn’t deter anything

THIS ^

@SchadenfreudePersonified

I doubt it, you can't fly when heavily pregnant so you would need the means to support your self for a couple of months. Much easier to go to Mexico or Canada.

About 10/12 years ago a lady from the ME travelled to the UK in the very final stages of pregnancy. She had had fertility treatment and was carrying 6 babies. It cost over £500,000.

www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/7097382.hospital-seeks-sextuplet-care-cash/

You can't tell me no-one knew she was pregnant when she flew over. She risked going into labour in mid-air, and dying along with her children, in order to abuse our health service..

That is a rare case though (for obvious reasons, it must be difficult to disguise a close to term multiple pregnancy from airline staff). In general, if people do want to have medical procedures (or give birth) in the UK they can, but they need to apply for a medical visa, demonstrate proof of funds to cover their treatment and I think (although not 100% if this is still the case) provide a "deposit" of money before the operation/treatment etc - this can be refunded if there is any left. I think, also the poster who said it was easier to go to Mexico or Canada was referring specifically to the women coming from America (which borders both those countries) for treatment. Of course Libya is closer to the UK than Mexica or Canada.

I'm so grateful to the NHS. One of my drugs is about £60 per injection per week
The other is £1000 every month
And I'm exempt from prescription charges

I'm an American and a HCP. A lot of the horror stories on this thread must have happened before 2010 when the Affordable Care Act was passed. It was a major reform of the rules and expansion of government funded coverage.

10 Ways the ACA Has Improved Health Care in the Past Decade

There are still improvements to be made, like a public option for Medicare, but things are far, far better than they used to be.

@MissConductUS

I'm an American and a HCP. A lot of the horror stories on this thread must have happened before 2010 when the Affordable Care Act was passed. It was a major reform of the rules and expansion of government funded coverage.

10 Ways the ACA Has Improved Health Care in the Past Decade

There are still improvements to be made, like a public option for Medicare, but things are far, far better than they used to be.

That makes sense, a lot of the documentaries etc people are describing (like Sicko) were made before then I think. So would you say, overall, the Affordable Care Act did what it was meant to do?

So would you say, overall, the Affordable Care Act did what it was meant to do?

Yes, it's been very effective. Millions more people have coverage and a lot of bad behavior and shoddy practices on the part of insurance companies were outlawed. It was really a job well done.

The gynecologist usually is not the surgeon. If he found something amiss he'd refer the woman to a OB/GYN surgeon. No woman here has to take her knickers off for her GP or his nurse.

his nurse?

@Dixiechickonhols

teenageromance people also tend to work much later in America. I've noticed on holiday there that Walmart, Disney etc employ elderly people 80 plus as greeters etc. It's rare to see someone that age working in UK whereas it's common. I assume to ensure they get work heathcare.

Usually because their retirement may not be enough. Not their medicare

We have poor maternal outcomes here because of our complete freedom to be stupid. 47 years ago I decided to martyr myself by having all my prenatal care and birth at DC General hospital, thankfully now gone. It was an inner city hospital that catered to poor intercity/ghetto and the inmates of the connected DC jail. I spent over two weeks as patient there before and after the birth. The women didn't give a single fuck about the the well being of their unborn/newborn babies. There was drug abuse, drinking, extremely poor diets and immense ignorance.

Whereas none of these behaviours exist in any other countries?

@UhtredRagnarson

The gynecologist usually is not the surgeon. If he found something amiss he'd refer the woman to a OB/GYN surgeon. No woman here has to take her knickers off for her GP or his nurse.

his nurse?

In America, general doctor can do Pap smears but most women rather have ob/gyn

@UhtredRagnarson

We have poor maternal outcomes here because of our complete freedom to be stupid. 47 years ago I decided to martyr myself by having all my prenatal care and birth at DC General hospital, thankfully now gone. It was an inner city hospital that catered to poor intercity/ghetto and the inmates of the connected DC jail. I spent over two weeks as patient there before and after the birth. The women didn't give a single fuck about the the well being of their unborn/newborn babies. There was drug abuse, drinking, extremely poor diets and immense ignorance.

Whereas none of these behaviours exist in any other countries?

Either because we dont have the freedom to be stupid (we soooo do) or because less people here are stupid than in the US (which is very unpatriotic thing for the OP to suggest), or.... ???

In America, general doctor can do Pap smears but most women rather have ob/gyn

I was referring the suggesting that the gynaecologist will always be male.

Biden did not tell insulin companies to raise their price. It’s these capitalists who are throwing a fit. I remember when Obamacare first passed, my husband ‘s health insurance company from work raised their price before they even gave Obamacare a chance to work. They didn’t care, they wanted people to be mad and blame Obamacare

Gynaecologist or GP

“Either because we dont have the freedom to be stupid (we soooo do) or because less people here are stupid than in the US (which is very unpatriotic thing for the OP to suggest), or.... ???“

More like people think so lowly of them that they even used the term Ghetto

@CayrolBaaaskin

Also I don’t think anyone at all is suggesting moving the NHS to a US style system. No one at all. So let’s be realistic

I think you are being incredibly naive to think that this is not an active and ongoing consideration.

Marcy 2021...The chief executive of a leading US healthcare organisation has been hired as NHS England’s new director of transformation. Timothy G. Ferris, MD was CEO of the Massachusetts General Physicians Organization. It may be a 'non-profit' but it is, and by extension it's ex-CEO, steeped in the US insurance model.

www.opendemocracy.net/en/ournhs/the-president-the-us-private-health-giant-and-top-nhs-officials-special-relationships/

Yes.
It’s coming here too.
I have had to pay to get a psychiatrist appt for DD 24 or I fear I will lose her. She’s been diagnosed by a GP for 10 years.Never seen a psychiatrist. It will, with the start of treatment, cost me over £2000. I am not a wealthy person. Single mum most of my adult life, rented house. This is all my spare cash for months. But I hope it saves her life.

"He naturally thought she was considerately breaking wind outside,"

Wait. What?

YouTube is full of people from the states operating on themselves or friends.