A lot of hospitals in the US have been closed because of this problem. Illegal immigrants go to ER with every little stuffy and runny nose, since they dont have any medical coverage, they clog up the medical system, since the hospitals cannot refuse treatment, and the costs are paid by...nobody, so hospitals go broke, or pass on costs to paying members...
That is sad... I would never personally do that it was just things that came to my mind as I was trying to grasp everything. That said, we did often go over to Houlton Maine (because it borders where we live) without coverage and never really thought a lot about it because we were so close to home. I never really appreciated health coverage until my mother-in-law fell last summer while visiting her in laws in Maine and had to be taken by ambulance to the hospital in Houlton and then transferred to our hospital... absolutely blew my mind.
REad some of the responses. Cananda's insurance does have a downside. My husband's cousin had breast cancer. At first she was denied treatment because she was over 60. She & her husband had to file an appeal and be interviewed by an attorney in order for her to get treatment. Her treatment plan was delayed 6 mos + . It was all due to her age and her place in society. Her doctor's hands were tied and he could do nothing about it. Sadly, what if her cancer had gotten severely worse during that 6 mos. THIS is why I fear universal healthcare.
Our healthcare DOES have a lot of flaws to it... no doubt about it. We wait longer overall for essential services and a lot of that is because of people clogging up the system unnecessarily (one example, when I did my last week of clinical a couple weeks ago, there was a man in there who was medically discharged but has no place to go so the hospital isn't forcing him to leave... instead our tax dollars are wasted while he roams to the cafeteria or gift shop to pan handle (I'm not kidding... police were in several times and read him the riot act) OR he decides that he's mad because he didn't get his way and throws a soiled bed pan at nursing staff... true story). People need the beds but can't get one because of stuff like this... just doesn't seem right to me. People who live in glass houses.....
Just as a side note some people pay less than others for health insurance. For example medical insurance through DH's work only costs us around 450 a month for the 5 of us (his is fully paid by the company, he pays half for me and the kiddos), we have a 500.00 deductable per person with a max of 1500.00 a year. HOWEVER, we also have copays 20.00 for a regular doc visit, and 30.00 for a specialist plus our prescription copays. My son's asthma medications alone cost us 180.00 a month in copays. Copays do not count toward our deductable and we have to pay them even if we do reach the 500.00 deductable. ER visits that are not true emergencies cost us 150.00 plus 20% of the bill Hospital stays are paid at 80% and we pay 20% yes it can get expensive but we do what we have to.
Ditto, our plan is similar to that too. Dh gets it cheap, relatively, through work, and we pay the copays, deductibles. I think we sacrifice on quality, though...
