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0 pointsMisterBastahrd9y ago0 comments

Yes, you can, for many, many maladies.

People without insurance don't go to hospitals. They don't go to doctors for routine checkups. They don't go to doctors to deal with chronic conditions. They go to ERs because they can't afford healthcare, but they know that the hospitals can afford their emergencies.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

zaroth9y ago· 1 in thread

Of course people without insurance go to ERs. That's not going to help you if you have, for example, Type 1 diabetes and need daily insulin and test strips. The ER isn't going to send you home with 1000 strips and a half dozen vials of humalog.

eli_gottlieb9y ago

So the "solution" on offer for our "problem" of having to insure diabetes sufferers is that if you have Type 1 diabetes but don't have a nice job, you should just die quietly?

DrScump9y ago· 1 in thread

  the hospitals can afford their emergencies

No, it's because the ER is legally obligated to treat, regardless of ability to pay. ERs in urban areas are generally money losers.

For example, Kaiser's huge new Santa Clara (CA) complex kept its ER from opening until the very day they closed the ER at the prior site on Kiely. There are fewer ERs in the San Jose area than there were 200,000 people ago.

MisterBastahrdOP9y ago

Yes, but the simple fact of the matter is that the hospital wouldn't be in business if they couldn't afford to provide the care. So the care is going to be administered ANYWAY, at a much greater cost than it should have been, because people wait until their problems blow up into emergencies before seeking care.

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