I'm a US citizen, people in other countries, what do you think when you read stories like these about the US health care system?
I'm a US citizen, people in other countries, what do you think when you read stories like these about the US health care system?
The emergency room bill I can’t stop thinking about.
I'd like to know other non-US citizen's opinions on your health care system are when you read a story like this. I know there are worse places in the world to receive health care, and better. What runs through your heads when you have a medical emergency?
A little background on my question:
My son was having trouble breathing after having a cold for a couple of days and we needed to stop and take the time to see if our insurance would be accepted at the closest emergency room so we didn't end up with a huge bill (like 2000$-5000$). This was a pretty involved ~10 minute process of logging into our insurance carrier, and unsuccessfully finding the answer there. Then calling the hospital and having them tell us to look it up by scrolling through some links using the local search tool on their website. This gave me some serious pause, what if it was a real emergency, like the kind where you have no time to call and see if the closest hospital takes your insurance.
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Honestly I just feel really sorry for you. What's even the point in living in the world's wealthiest country if it treats so many of you like shit at your most vulnerable.
What runs through your heads when you have a medical emergency?
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whatever first aid I was taught that's relevant to do immediately e.g stop the bleeding
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do we need to wait for an ambulance for this or shall we just drive straight to Accident and Emergency
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go go go
That's about it followed by some of the usual "oh please let this person be okay". Emergencies are horrific. I can't even imagine having to factor being bankrupted into it.
I'm in New Zealand so the doctor costs money and prescriptions in some places cost $5 each. So there is still a lot of weighing up that the poor do around that kind of care. But as soon as a hospital is involved everything is free. None of that stuff is a factor any more.
In the US there are videos of people losing limbs in train accidents begging to not have the ambulance called because it's too expensive - and that's before you even get to the hospital. Better hope they take you to one your insurance covers or they might not cover the ER visit
@Uranium3006 that's so tragic and awful. I read that the US has a weirdly high death in childbirth rate for a developed country, probably because some of people who really should be giving birth in a hospital can't afford to.
I can't even imagine.
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