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Who is paying now when poor people show up in the emergency room with untreated conditions and no plans to pay the hospital?
The bulk of that means less hospital profits. It is not so easy to transfer these losses to other payers. Although you can bet that the hospital will try, next price negotiation period. In AZ the hospitals put in $250M to push through Medicaid expansion, and it was a surprising success. Reimbursements are lower there, but there are now fewer no payers. It has been about a wash for our hospital.
If I have cancer that is that costly, implying that horrendous, to treat, I wouldn't choose the "spare no expense" option.
We are all free to engage medical care or not. So we have hospice for folks like you. In a broad context for people with 6 months to live.
My wife is currently in that seriously expensive and precarious medical position. She chooses to live. I can't tell you how hard this would be if we were poor. There are so many implications beyond just the medical bills themselves.
Most people trying to kill you with their car don't have the assets to make a civil suit useful.
What about a plane crash? Is the pilot trying to kill you? The point is, unfortunate things happen. They can't all be prevented, and they can't all have unlimited resources of medical care heaped upon the afflicted.
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Ah, the fairness issue again. I appreciate that. If you can't pay, we should still be able to find the money, as above.
Via voluntary contributions. No one is disputing that.
No one should be paying for that. Employ triage. If it's not an imminently life-threatening emergency, turn them away and/or refer them elsewhere, a charity clinic for example. No more ER for "sniffles."
You can do appropriate transfers if the patient is stable and there is a willing and able receiving hospital. Not so easy these days. And high risk. Most times at most hospitals, they would rather take the loss rather than incur the major liability if something goes wrong. For non-emergent a local primary care referral can be made if available. Small towns don't typically have charity clinics.
Most people don't go to the ER for sniffles. The ER is too inconvenient. And even those that do, it is a very cheap visit.
We are all free to engage medical care or not. So we have hospice for folks like you. In a broad context for people with 6 months to live.
Correct. But at which point can such a person inflict extraordinary medical treatment expenses that they or their insurance isn't going to pay, on everyone else?
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My wife is currently in that seriously expensive and precarious medical position. She chooses to live. I can't tell you how hard this would be if we were poor. There are so many implications beyond just the medical bills themselves.
Your choice. Your expense. What right do you have to force others to pay for your or your wife's whims?
Most family doctors are only available M-F 9-5. Before the ACA, people couldn't afford to go to the ER when needed outside of banking hours, they probably just never went to the doctor at all.
Correct. But at which point can such a person inflict extraordinary medical treatment expenses that they or their insurance isn't going to pay, on everyone else?
Your choice. Your expense. What right do you have to force others to pay for your or your wife's whims?
By law there are no longer yearly or lifetime limits. Insurance naturally causes winners to pay more than they receive in benefits.
Inevitable with broader coverage. But few people go to the ER for sniffles.
They have cough and sinus drainage and fever and hacking and misery for days despite OTC's and usually inability to get in with convenient primary care.
Is there any particular reason such an individual didn't save/invest for such an occurrence?
I usually agree with your posts, but I find the above very insensitive to the millions of hardworking people who live paycheck to paycheck (or month to month) and cannot afford to save very much.
There are many reasons why people do not have savings to cover unexpected major expenses and yes, those reasons often involve poor choices -- but that is not always the case.
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