Then there are the family and acquaintances who go to the hospital Emergency Room, because although they have no insurance, an Emergency facility is generally required to treat them.
On one hand, we have people who do not receive routine care, who only seek healthcare long after a point where early diagnosis or treatment would have been inexpensive.
On the other hand, we have people who use a military-grade triage center for flu symptoms.
Both situations are ruinously expensive. And continue to contribute to trillion-dollar government-budget shortfalls. To say nothing of the inevitable, preventable zombie apocalypse.
Those people are absolutely paying a cost; having to make healthcare decisions based on money, bad credit when you can’t pay the bill, job insecurity because you’re sick or injured, incessant (and often overtly insulting) debt collection calls/mail, and of course that perpetual gnawing anxiety that arises from knowing that all of these costs you’re paying for being poor are making you poorer.
I’m sorry you don’t like paying your deductible, though.
This is terribly misconstruing the facts. They get to go to ER treatement only, no midterm care. The problem is if they don’t pay, their credit record is heavily penalized. This may seem like nothing but for someone with out money or means it spells a quick down hill slide to homelessness. No problem =/= homeless
FYI the #1 cause of home foreclosures in the US is medical bills
When you're broke, you're broke. Just because you have health insurance doesn't mean you can afford to use it. I had better healthcare as a homeless person than as a massively indebted recent college grad with a health plan through work.
