> Now, just yesterday I had a debate with me on one side and my dear fiancee > and my blessed mother on the other. > They both bring up USA as a bad example every time we debate the issue of > the European Union. > Their prime example being that no person in the States can recieve any sort > of treatment on a hospital if they can't show cash, credit card or insurance > papers on entry. > Meaning that dying homeless people are asked to expire elsewhere on a daily > basis on American hospitals. > Now the uneducated savage [being myself] wants to know: Is that really true? > > M. Malmkvist
No this is a huge massive lie. (Like most Americans) Yes there have been cases where someone has been refused treatment, but they are so few and far between that they make headlines when they do happen. Now to clarify that, what do you mean by treatment? This is where the socialists try and worm in. For ex: a parent has no insurance, his kid is sick. He waits days and days to seek treatment, and finally takes the child to the emergancy room and the kid is near death. More likely in a rural area. There are free clinics but not every little town and village has them. So yes the parent will be frowned at, but no serious doctor will turn the child away. (In fact this is a poor choice, there are plenty of free plans that cover un-insured children. But the parent has to do some work, ie apply to get child enrolled. But even without this a doctor would much rather help a just sick child compared to one that is very sick because nothing was done for days. again, I'm sure it has happened where some doctor or non-free clinic turned away a sick child. That doctor was probably sued so hard that the childs grand kids will go to college for free). A local boy hurt his leg playing football at an away game. The away hospital wasn't swamped, but was busy. He never saw a real doctor, he was told the wait would be 3+ hours, just put some ice on it and see your family doctor the next day. The next day was a sunday, he didn't see doctor. On monday the leg ballooned, blood clot, they had to amputate his leg and he almost lost his other one. Very bad situation and they had insurance. So an adult has no insurance for himself. Again plenty will wait forever to take care of a problem and that makes it much worse. If you are an upstanding citizen then you should do right by the doctor. I myself had no insurance and was in an accident. I paid the doctor and hospital back a little bit each month until the bill was paid. My mother had trouble with her insurance after her second husband died. She had set up an agreement with the hospital when she had a bill and was paying as best she could. At one point the hospital didn't like the amount they were getting and threatened her. That's when us kids stepped in and had a nice chat with the bill collector, "Either you accept what she's paying now or forget ever seeing another penny." (There was other things going on so don't ask). The third problem is "under-insured". Some of it is frivolus, like people wanting insurance to cover a face lift or sex change. Other's isn't, there is a percentage of women in their child bearing years who don't have insurance that would cover a pregnancy, but would cover a broken arm or similar. (I've heard 30-40%) And the hospital is just trying to cover it's bases. If I show up with a broken arm but refuse to say who I am or how I will pay, then yes the hospital will be reluctant to fix me. It's a contract. On the other side you can see the problem in large cities. Lots of people showing up, lower chances of insurance, higher poverty, transients. Or an aids patient shows up, the hospital tries to get info so he can be helped, the activitits scram that he's being profiled. So that's some views. Anyone who shows up bleeding will get treatment first, questions later. Other things can and do happen. Never say never. Kevin T. Confused yet?
