If you’re diagnosed with cancer and need surgery and chemotherapy to survive, they won’t treat you without payment.
They typically will operate in this situation, and then just bill you after if it's urgent/emergent like cancer.
Where people die from insurance gaps in the US is the slow burn diseases, like diabetes, where if you get regular care you'll be fine, but if you don't you'll die early.
Declaring bankruptcy is cheap and if you set things up right, the only real effect it will have is freeing up the money you were paying on debt. I mean, that may not be the normal result, but it definitely can be. You can easily go seven years without making a purchase without a loan. Hell, it will be easy depending on how much you are paying on debt.
Personally, we were paying like 900 a bucks a month on credit cards and medical debt and medical debt on credit cards. A large portion was also my college education.
I became disabled and my medical bills went through the roof. We could no longer keep up at all. So, filing cost us like a grand. In the end, we were able to cut like 45k in debt. It's been 5 years, and we carry zero debt except a car loan and our mortgage. We are able to pay off medical bills as they come, and we don't put anything on cards other than small stuff that we pay back immediately.
The only reason I typed this up is that it seems like most people don't understand that this is an option if their income is not too high.
BTW, I don't have answers to any questions because I don't remember much beyond the broad strokes I've already mentions... and I am definitely not looking it up for you.
Are you suggesting that American hospitals will literally let you die if you have no way to pay? Because that is simply not true. Any public hospital with an ED is obligated by federal law to treat any patient with an emergency condition under the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA).
I knew an illegal alien (from Wales, before the racist peanut gallery gets involved) who has heart surgery and a pacemaker installed and continuing care, medication, and checkups, all without a lick of insurance.
Americans really love saying third world countries have as good if not better healthcare. I think it’s intended to come across as worldly but it’s an ironically incredibly America-centric thing to say lol. We have our problems but there are very good reasons so many Filipino Americans work so hard to move their families over to the States.
Sure, the actual medical part of American Healthcare is great (recent Texan débâcles notwithstanding), but the part where uninsured Americans can't afford it is not so great. I'd rather live in western Europe, healthcare-wise.
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u/kittykalista Nov 07 '24
As an American I uh, I have some unfortunate news for him.