That's the possibility I face. I haven't had insurance for some time, and it really svcks in the U.S. I'm just waiting for my girlfriend to get into grad school so we can marry and I can get on the insurance the school will provide.

I can't afford to get sick or have an accident.
It would be nice to be able to call around hospitals for price shopping, but it doesn't work that way.
I think the whole system is a scam.
If a person had a life-threatening illness or accident, how does personal identification work? Could the person just say they don't have ID, and be treated (at no charge to that person) anyway? This is useful for me if possible

My father had a PET scan done last month. The hospital billed his insurance carrier $8,000 for it. For one scan.

Enough said.

I see just about everyone here is making the same mistake and is assuming that Health Care and Health Insurance are the same thing.

In reality, health insurance is completely unnecessary and only serves one purpose: to inflate health care costs to the point where the insurance appears necessary.

Also, fun fact about the US Health Care system: No public hospital (which is about 95% of them) is permitted to deny emergency treatment for any reason. Additionally, as long as a good faith attempt to pay is made, treatment cannot be denied. What this means is that if you need very expensive treatments you can send them a check each month for whatever you can afford to pay and they are required to accept it and not send you into arrears. Of course, the insurance companies and the hospitals don't want you to know this as they would much prefer that you grotesquely overpay them for everything.

Reminds me of car repairs.

Them: "That'll be ￡800 to do this minor repair."

Me: "Uh, what?!"

Them: "This is an insurance job, right?"

Me: "No, they've wriggled out of it, I'm paying for it myself."

Them: "Oh, sorry, the actual cost is ￡250."

You've obviously never heard of bill collectors, or credit. (or your an amoral person, who lacks ethics and sees no problem with stealing) Unless you're lying to the medical professionals about your identity. Which IS a crime.
Also, if you really believe that health care and insurance are not related, you're not seeing the big picture. It's like saying the ocean does not effect the clouds.

That will wreck your credit.

Insurance and providers work in tandem. The hospital bills whatever they like. The insurance companies 'negotiate' it down. In my example, the insurance company only paid 2k out of 8k, but if you didn't have insurance, you'd be billed the 8k. The scan probably wasn't worth 2k either. They do the same with medications.

Reading Comprehension is your friend. I'll repost the relevant aspect:
What this means is that if you need very expensive treatments you can send them a check each month for whatever you can afford to pay and they are required to accept it and not send you into arrears

I have a very long and detailed article I wrote detailing the Affordable Care Act, however this forum does not permit political content and you've taken it into both (veiled) personal insults and politics in the course of 2 posts. I'd be happy to send you a PM with my article, but you have to promise not to respond as I'm sure you won't like what you read.


If you are dying and in need of medical attention, I think your credit score is probably the least of your concerns.

Besides, the main point is that insurance allows both insurers and providers to inflate costs. What would normally be illegal price gouging is covered up by the fact that no one pays out of pocket.

You can get the care but you're still billed up the [censored]. No one said they'd deny you any care - you can be denied specific procedures. If there are several treatments and one is more costly you can kiss it goodbye. If they judge that the procedure isn't absolutely necessary you probably won't get it.

On point two I agree. Pretty much what my post says.

Send me the article.

I'll also point this out: If your chest hurts you may want a CT scan. You aren't dying, but are you willing to ruin your credit just to see if there's a problem?

The problem there is that something as simple and inexpensive as a chest scan SHOULDN'T have the potential to ruin your credit in the first place. We can give away CT scans in Africa at cost for around $20 each, why should the exact same scan cost thousands here?

It goes back to my point, everyone thinks that the best way to address Health Care costs is to improve insurance when it is the insurance that is driving the costs up in the first place.

I agree. Proposing a possible solution would probably be considered 'political' and not allowed on these forums.

IMO, they don't svck enough.

It's a huge business, and you're right, it will never go out of business. Here in Florida people were doctor shopping for opiates like OxyContin and Dilaudid then selling them. Now there's a pharmaceutical database in the state and people can't doctor shop for literally 1000's of pills a month to sell. The crime rate here has skyrocketed due to the pills becoming more expensive because of this, but there's also more people in recovery centers because of it.

Except to pay for the equipment, salaries to the doctors/nurses, the electricity to run the machine giving you the CT,not to jenyion the maitenence to make sure it works properly all costs money. A d I trust a insurance company more than I trust some stupid bureaucrat. Why? Because their is competition between insurance companies. Competion breeds innovation and drives prices down because health insurance companies can't afford to charge higher prices. They would go out of bussiness if they did. Bureaucracy, on the other hand, can deny treatment for whatever reason they want and you can't do a thing about it. Plus you pay out uour ass in taxes for someone else's health care. Which can kill a country's economy because people will lose incentive to work .

TL;DR public healthcare is bad.

I work to pay my bills. Health insurance is a bonus.

I do, however, find the fact that you're attacking someone who agrees with you quite satisfying.
I'm tempted to say something snide, here ... something about ... karma, I think. Oh wait. I just did.

1I'm not attacking anyone, I am simply stating a counter argument.
2.The statement about getting rid of health insurance all together leas me to believe that he is for public health care.

mmm-Hmm. I'd work on your tone, then.
I'm not sure what he wants, to be honest. I asked him to summarize it, but I'm not sure he can. I do know he feels the Federal Government has no right to mandate insurance. Constitutionally? He's right. I take issue with him on a moral ground, though. However, his denial of his own state of mind leads me to question his grasp of reality, so we pretty much stopped chatting. One of those "I'm right, no I'm right" kinds of things.
Like we were about to have. But won't because I'm just too tired.

United States. Which is great if I ever get cancer, you get to start treatment like the week after diagnosis. Or if I ever need a hip or knee replacement, we pretty much hand those out like penny candy at a St. Patrick's Day parade.

Of course I statistically have a much greater chance at morbid obesity than if I lived in another country, and a greater chance of dying in a motor vehicle accident or a stray bullet from gang related gunfire.

This is bordering on politics so I'll try to not even skirt near that area.

Medical care costs are getting higher to cover the costs of those who can't afford it. If 10 people get a $100 procedure but only 2 of them actually pay, they have to make the difference somewhere. It's like a domino effect. Also, people want more and more money so they have to make more money to pay everyone. That doesn't even include the insanely large amount of ridiculous lawsuits brought up against medical professionals, who in return have to insure themselves because of the lawsuits which also makes their costs go up.

I know multiple doctors who had to give up their practices or drop part of their practice because of the price of having to insure themselves. These are great doctors who are caught in the crossfire of people looking for an easy payday and really horrible doctors who deserve the malpractice suits.


It's never a black and white issue. Dissolving private insurance is not going to suddenly bring prices down...

I live in Canada, Ontario, Toronto, and the health care is alright, in my limited experience.

If you go to a hospital for an emergency (ex. broke your leg), you're almost guaranteed a few hour wait.

My (family) doctor is wonderful, and I can easily set up an appointment, see him, and be done (of course, I'm always early and I don't get in until 20+ minutes after the schedualed time, generally).

I'm happy with my health care