Americans without Health Insurance: a question

i'd love to hear any evidence to the contrary.

Hospitals do employ social workers and other staff to help indigent patients seek out means to help pay the bills, are required to provide reduced-cost services under certain circumstances, and historically have provided a certain amount of charity care. Still, there are plenty of cases in which uninsured patients were left with cripplingly large medical bills. I don't have specific figures, but apparently uncovered medical expenses is the primary reason leading Americans for file for bankruptcy.

And if the show was true to life, half of the residents would be of South Asian origin!

Anyways, one other problem (among many) with no health coverage is that there's no preventative care, no tests, etc. So when it comes time to show up at a hospital it's usually in a crisis. So even if you are granted emergency care, your long-term health (and life expectancy) is going to suffer.

and you're right re: medicare, medicaid although they're almost the same program.

hurrah for functionaing nationwide health care.

Has this happened relatively recently, in particular? Cause like I said: $60,000 for gallbladder surgery (cutting me open, not the thing where they just poke you) and five days in the hospital with minor physical therapy ... vs. $18,000 in 1991 when my ex had a daughter born a month premature, and the baby had to stay in the hospital for four weeks of observation. I would've bet anything that the latter would've been more expensive. Different states, granted.

I was fortunate in that my physician understands my predicament and provides most of my prescription medications as free samples, and my pharmisist is able to give me discount rates because of income levels. I have worked with the hospitals, labs, and other physicans who have provided treatment in order to get some of the fees reduced (five spinal taps in six months is aburdely expensive. Ditto for bone marrow tests). Some have been willing to partially write-off the fees, others have agreed to long-term payment options. I explained it to them this way, more or less: "Look, the only thing that I own, in my name, that is worth anything is my car. I can file for bankruptcy and then you get nothing. Or you can work with me and I'll pay you what I can when I can." Seemed to help a bit.

Thankfully, I have some well-to-do relatives who were able to lend me a total of $19K (U.S.) to cover those portions of the bills that were not written off and that I was being billed for/turned over to creditors, etc. But it sucks. Right now I owe, total (medical bills and loan repayments) about $32K. I figure I'll be paying that off for several years.

I cannot purchase private insurance due to a health condition - I have not been refused coverage, but have been offered coverage at monthly rates that were a full half of my monthly income at the time, with no coverage for the health conition or related problems. I couldn't afford it at the time. Now I am thinking it was stupid of me not to fork over all of that cash. I'd still be ahead right now, if I had.

Different times, different states, different hospitals, different insurance plans (assuming that an insurance plan was involved in either case), and a million other different factors. Another factor is the rise of preferred provider (PPO) plans with prenegotiated rates. The insurers will ask the providers who want to be part of this network things like "What is your standard charge for XYZ procedure (we will pay you 50% of that charge)?" The doctor, who previously would have billed $1,000 to cover the costs of that procedure puts down $2,000, which becomes that doctor's established rate. And since there are rules that limit doctors' ability to charge uninsured and insured patients different rates, the doctor generally must quote uninsured patients the $2,000 price as the standard charge.

Between penny-pinching insurers and patients who are too broke to pay out of pocket for care, U.S. health care finance is fucked, and it's taking health care delivery with it. You hear about it most in reference to inner cities, but it's also a growing problem in rural areas.

I happen to have a health insurance plan -- which I pay for myself, since my current employer doesn't offer a health plan -- and I'm very lucky 1) to be able to afford this plan, and 2) to have been accepted by this plan. However, it's part of the Maryland/DC BlueCross BlueShield network (ostensibly not for profit), whose trustees have decided that the DC population would be better served by their selling out to a for-profit insurer. Health care finance in the U.S. is a matter of haves versus have-nots, and it's simply getting worse by the month.

It's just insane here and sometimes I literally cry thinking about it, because soon I won't qualify for insurance anymore, and with all my health problems it could end up being massively disastrous.

In, short. No insurance = you're fucked if something happens.

People who cannot get insured must take good care of themselves.

I saw a World Health Organization report that had Cuba ABOVE the U.S. in national health care rankings. Spain was at the top I think.

how much does health insurance cost in the usa?

I'd rather pay the 200 dollars a month towards universal coverage rather than have all these different plans. It'll never happen.

Japan has the BEST HEALTHCARE SYSTEM EVER. We might be able to bring them down to our level with time.