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What about the ER? Get yourself checked in for a mental breakdown or the like, stay the night. It's not like they will be able to collect on the bill if your income is measured in cents per day and your address is "under the overpass near that one busy intersection."
My mother-in-law was in the US visiting us when she got appendicitis. Took her to the doctor and had to get surgery the same day, her appendix was close to bursting and we were told she wouldn't have made it another day. My wife overheard the nurse yelling at the doctor for accepting a patient with no insurance. So apparently even in life and death situations, sending you back is an option if you don't have insurance.
I work at a hospital. I have heard that another hospital in our city will transfer patients to our hospital because, we are "better at treating their particular condition", that condition being "poor"
That's because you work in a very rich hospital that can easily afford the cost right? Right?
We survived a very rough period about a quarter century ago that taught leadership the value of fiscal responsibility. It was quite literally an existential crisis. The lessons carried us through multiple economic downturns in the intervening years including the pandemic.
Regarding the challenging cases that are deemed too unprofitable by other institutions, our solution is to improve both the quality and the efficiency of their treatment so that we are able to cover expenses without compromising care.
I'm quite proud of the work we do. In a world filled with corporations led by over paid sociopaths, I believe that our (non-profit) organization is doing the right thing for the right reasons.
I watched a documentary about the situation of health care in the US and I think it was Texas's gouvernement who was saying that hospitals are required to give you the health care needed in the case of an emergency.
This is broadly true, though there can be some wiggle room in the exact definitely of "immediate life-saving care" depending on where you end up. In particular, a condition like appendicitis that will inevitably lead to a crisis may be turned away until it actually becomes one, even if that makes things riskier and costlier for everyone involved.
Right, sometimes you need to be actively dying to receive care, not just at risk of dying.