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| health insurance |
Can you live in the USA without any health insurance? What will you do then when you are sick? You can see a doctor or go to the dentist or ER without insurance. You don’t have to have insurance to be seen. A lot of times, if you pay cash, you get a discount! I pay cash to see my PCP. The visit is $75. If I ran it through my insurance (which sucks), I would get a bill of over $100.
Emergency rooms, whether private or non-profit, have to abide by the EMTLA law. This means, regardless of your ability or inability to pay, they have to at least provide a medical screening EXAM to determine whether you have an emergent condition.
The exam is the word here. Not labs, XRays, etc.
The provider checks you out and says whether you have something going on that will kill you if not treated. If it is determined that you have an emergent condition (heart attack, stroke, appendicitis), they will do what they have to do to save your life.
If it is determined that you are not about to die, they could, in theory, stop there, but most ERs will still do the whole visit, start to finish, and send you a bill later. Most hospitals have a fund in place for people without insurance that gives them a significant discount on their bills.
You could live without health insurance
So yes, you could live without health insurance; a lot of people do. But, you do run the risk that if you had a major issue like an emergency appendectomy happen, you could get a gi-enormous bill that would cause you to go bankrupt. And if you were diagnosed with a disease, let’s say, cancer, that requires a bunch of non-emergent treatment, you would be screwed bc offices are going to must pay upfront.
Private health insurance in the USA at risk of dying?
It's because they won't see a doctor until it's serious. Many health problems are known and “lived with” for a long time before they seek help.
When it finally becomes an emergency, they will seek care and receive it. They will receive the smallest care necessary to resolve the emergency and be sent on their way.
Sometimes the ER can't help
It is already too late. Sometimes the smallest care provided is not enough and they die days or weeks later.
If they could have gone to the doctor sooner it may never have become an emergency at all, saving thousands of dollars in medical bills. If they could have afforded the doctor's visit, it might have saved their lives.
The people at greatest risk aren't the poor
It is the hardworking middle class that gets screwed from all sides. They don't receive health benefits at work and they can't afford the health premiums, AND they have to pay a penalty to the government each year.
Health insurance premiums are about $500 a month for a single person for the smallest policy. For that price, you get to see a doctor once a year for free and have to pay all other expenses up to the $10,000 deductible. A good policy that could actually be used runs around $900 a month, for one person.
Unless you have a serious illness, have healthcare paid by your employer, or makeover $50K, it doesn't make sense to pay for health insurance. You have to wait and see.
The wait-and-see attitude can be deadly.
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