Quote:
Originally Posted by Christian Benteke
Re: Hospital, what do Americans do if you need to go? If you need a serious operation and you have no money, then what do you do cos I'm assuming they don't just turn seriously ill people away? And what if it's minor, do you go in as normal then get billed for it at the end?
Here we just go to Accident & Emergency if it's urgent or just book an appointment if it's not. All necessary surgery (i.e. non-cosmetic) is provided free, everything is free.
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They can't turn you away. Doctors take the
Hippocratic Oath upon getting licensed to practice medicine, and turning sick people away would be doing harm. Turning sick people back onto the streets could also become a public safety issue, especially if they have a dangerous communicable disease (what with all the misinformed non-vaccination going on now), and of course they wouldn't know that since they didn't examine the person. If you're in critical condition upon being admitted to the ER, they're not going to check for your insurance policy obviously. They treat you as promptly as possible, and bill you later. The problem with going to the hospital in the US when you are uninsured, is that it affects the premiums of people who actually have insurance. I'm not sure if it's still like this under the Affordable Healthcare Act, though.
In Canada, it's different. We have the single payer system here. The cost of healthcare is paid for by the government through income taxes, so not exactly "free", but you don't have to pay anything to the hospital or doctor, except for elective procedures. So like the UK, and most other Western countries, in that regard.
However, vision and dental are not covered by the government. You don't need insurance to receive care. You'll just be billed later on, and the bills are ****ing hefty. It's cheaper to have insurance for dental, but some do not cover braces or other things like crowns or root canals. You really have to read the fine print.