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Seriously ill indigent Americans do have access to health care. My friend, who was poor, came down with stage 4 cancer. The local hospital covered cost of his treatment. Had it not, he probably would have lived only two more months. Thanks to that, his life was prolonged by a year and a half before he died. Had he not had a stroke he would likely still be alive and getting cancer treatment.
Thats not the reality in most cases. If you are seriously ill, you cant just beg the hospital to cover treatment costs and they'll do it. You just have to die after begging people for $200 000 and coming up short. Its pretty crazy that it is considered "moderate" and "centrist" to support this status quo and radical to put an end to this abominable practice.
Hospitals are required by law to provide emergency treatment. There is some taxpayer-funded reimbursement for emergency care. Also, taxpayers pick up the cost of hospital dialysis.
But cancer treatment, rotator cuff surgery, knee replacements, ... you better have insurance or a payment plan set up.
Cancer treatment is not cheap. That odds that hospitals can or would pick up the cost of cancer treatment for this without insurance is pretty remote.
Perhaps, but I've never heard of a hospital, even the Catholic hospitals, doing this.
Generally, they have an office devoted to helping the less fortunate get on Medicaid. Then Medicaid, i.e. taxpayers, foot the bill.
Thats often not the case. If you earn more than $250 a month, you cant get Medicaid in plenty of states. Thats right. $250 a month. You basically have to starve in the gutter in those states to get it.
The most I've ever heard of is dipping into a charity fund to over prt off the cost of some procedure with the expectation that the rest will be paid by the patient.
If it is not, the remaining oil is generally turned over to a collection agency. People have been sent to jail over not showing up every three months to expalin that they still can't pay the $100K+ hospital bill.
The truth is that if you tried to take away Canada's, or any of these countries universal healthcare, you'd have chaos on your hands. Granted, people love to complain, but just try taking it away.
My recent boss was a hard-core MAGA conservative, originally from England. He used to love to chide me about anything liberal, but every time I pressed him on healthcare, he had to admit he was baffled why ANYONE would want our system. He did complain about problems in the British system, but when challenged always had to admit it was light-years better than what we have, and said he'd fight to keep it, if faced with going toward a US-style system.
My boss after him was Canadian. He was not a MAGA conservative, but said the exact same thing.
Canadians looking for US-Style insurance is certainly not the majority. It is anecdotal at best.
"Fraser Institute" is think tank in Canada funded by a few super rich individuals in order to spread propaganda. Its no different than Heritage Foundation and similar organizations.
Thats often not the case. If you earn more than $250 a month, you cant get Medicaid in plenty of states. Thats right. $250 a month. You basically have to starve in the gutter in those states to get it.
Depends on the state.
In Minnesota, Medicaid (MNCare) can be arranged fairly quickly for someone without the funds to cover a needed hospital procedure. MNCare even covers dental care. I've known people to haul relatives up from Florida to get dental care in Minnesota.
In North Carolina, it is a different story. Medicaid is far more difficult to obtain, and they do not participate in ACA. If you make more than $11K+ you can sign up for health insurance under the federal exchange. If you don't make that much, you are SOL. As far as I'm aware, there is no medical insurance coverage via Medicaid for anyone but children and those on disability.
In Minnesota, if you are disabled and unable to work, you can get a stipend (used to be around $400/month), MNCare, subsidized housing, food stamps, ... while you wait for disability determination to be made. It's not a great living, but you won't starve or freeze to death.
Many people from Wisconsin who get injured and are unable to work, move to Minnesota for this very reason.
I used to do diabetes screenings for Walgreens in MN and WI. Never once came across anyone who had diabetes and was not getting medical care in MN. Every single WI clinic had half a dozen people or so who had diabetes yet not on insulin because of the cost. They came to the screening to get their blood tested.
It was so sad. They were hoping things didn't worse and knew they would eventually pay the price.
In fact, we would all pay the price as eventually many would end up disabled and on SSDI, etc.
Seriously ill indigent Americans do have access to health care. My friend, who was poor, came down with stage 4 cancer. The local hospital covered cost of his treatment. Had it not, he probably would have lived only two more months. Thanks to that, his life was prolonged by a year and a half before he died. Had he not had a stroke he would likely still be alive and getting cancer treatment.
How sad. There are way too many stories like this in the US -- one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
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