I am an Ausfag and I have a question for you americunts.
If you're sick, and have no health insurance, what happens if you go to the ER? Do you end up getting a bill? Do you somehow have to pay for treatment?
Example: If you go to ED, and they find out you have a tumor for example, what happens then? Do you have to pay or get out?
bump
They will treat emergencies (i.e. a bone fracture or a stroke) and charge you afylterwards. If you go to the ER with a cancer or another chronic illness they will send you back home and charge the ER visit
Yes and no. You can't be refused treatment if your life is in danger, whether you have insurance or not. You get a bill, and you "have" to pay it. But he bills can easily jump into 5 and six digit price figures, which obviously you'll never be able to just pay. So basically you end up in perma debt and do your best to have a decent financial life in spite of it. Health insurance isn't super expensive, so I'm not sure why people don't just pay it.
Google: leading cause of bankruptcy in us
Protip, It's: 643,000 Bankruptcies in the U.S. Every Year Due to Medical Bills
When i started where i work i was paying 1/6 of my paycheck to health insurance. Maybe thats affordable for you... not for me.
>perma debt
this is what the world runs on
You end up with a bill. You either pay thousands of dollars for some minor bullshit or you just ignore it. I personally just ignore it.
canadafag here
when i went and had my appendix out i got a bill
12 fucking dollars for overnight parking!!
Shit, son. I'm on 18% for income taxes and that pays for universal healthcare, old people's pension, kids' education, etc, etc.
Isn't there a cheaper health care plan? Or was it just a $ premium instead of a percentage?
>health insurance isn't expensive
good fucking joke. the fact that we don't have socialized Healthcare like most of the first world is a joke
What if it's someone else's fault you got hurt? Do they have to pay the medical bills (or their insurance if they have limited liability(?))
You will be asked to pay exponentially more than what they would charge the insurance company. I work in revenue and billing for a hospital and the whole system is fucked. Routinely, we write off millions because of software problems yet send bloated bills for ER visits to people in homeless shelters.
Even if you have insurance ER visits are still fucking expensive. Last time I went I had to pay 800 fucking dollars. Not to mention a 50 dollar bill from the jerk offs at urgent care for telling me they couldn't help me. Our healthcare system is a fucking wreak. Insurance is only really useful if you get cancer or something you'd have to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix. For most stuff it's only slightly discounted. I mean what the fuck even is a co-pay? I've never only had to pay the amount they list on my insurance card for anything. It's been way more like every time!
You file a lawsuit against that person.
>What if it's someone else's fault you got hurt?'
You sue the shit out of them, make them pay your health care costs, then tack on another $200,000 in "emotional damages".
Welcome to Litigationland.
We do. It's called Medicare and Medicaid.
Aussie here, mate moved to USA, got sick, it was $207 US just to see a nurse not a doctor.
THEN me poor cunt mate got bitten on the hand by a brown recluse spider... flesh eating necrosis set in...
Youse yanks are fucked not demanding free health care. WT Fucking Fuck.
You know why people aren't demanding free health care? They fucking think they are going to die in waiting rooms if health care is free, because of the wait. THEY ACTUALLY THINK THEY ARE GOING TO DIE AT A GODDAMN HOSPITAL! Why are these people so fucking dumb?
Jesus. I don't know if I'd trust the US Justice system for that. Seems just like a good way to just make a bunch of lawyers rich.
It's not free, you pay for it with your taxes. And there is a big question of the standard of care. I can see how people want questions answered instead of blindly running into something. But I agree that those reasons are moronic.
Such an insane system...
Last time I was in ER (9 stitches in foot), I gave em Nuthin. Wheelchair from the car, quejumped cos bleeding everywhere. Breif explanation to triage nurse, taken to stall, few mins waiting. See doc, explain what happened n that super needle phobia. So +2 Sedative, nitrous. Cleaned, local (start freaking, concentrate on hyperventilating nitrous whilst kinking O2 line. Sufficiently out to ignore jabs). More cleaning, tendons are fucking cool IRL, we're just tubes n wires.
"Excellent example", goes n gets student doc to show. Watch stitching, get dressing etc. Have to wait about 20 min to get an x-ray, check tendons etc. Fucking cool machine, robo arm with source can go anywhere in a 3x3m space, film is a tablet thing. Ask some geeky tech Q's, operator explains how it works n shows some of the other tablets, from finger to spine size. Minute later, foot image on the screen, doc comes in n checks, all clear, nurse points the way out.
Ask as I'm leaving any paperwork etc? Nothing. Not even a name, Medicare card. Walk out slightly stoned in under an hour.
Oh, and I swear they cherry pick them. All super cute, at least 7.5/10, except the super-granny who had the 'everything will be time's aura perfected.
Now that's a damn health system.
Where do you live, brah?
>except the super-granny who had the 'everything will be time's aura perfected.
everything will be FINE.
Damn autocorrect.
Quite happy to pay taxes for that sorta service.
That said, the stupid Indian woman GP I went to later for a checkup was fucking useless. Tried to take out stitches when obviously not healed n slightly infected (which is why I went, antibiotics are great). Was stopped by another doc, it hurt like a cunt as she was wrestling with the stitches (roll em out, don't just yank on em!)
All the local GPs suck, but then, their all Indian n Arabs. Current GP is a few suburbs away, much better area, but a decent Aussie bloke.
Perth, west Aus.
Charlie Gairdner is a tertiary hospital, so that might have something to do with it. If your in Perth, and you have the opportunity, go there. That said, I was with a mate who got in a bad way in Fremantle one sat night, n was pretty smooth for him to. Not as quick, but then, it was Saturday night just down the road from a port city's drinking district, so they were busy. Took his name then, but probably more for the cops...