Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills
by ams6110 on Thursday December 20, 2018 @08:36AM
(#18724737)
You have gone from a hypothetical to concluding that people in the US die because they can't afford cancer drugs.
If your dad was over 65, he would be on Medicare. If he was younger than 65 and impoverished (income between 0 - ~150% of poverty level) he would be on Medicaid or another state plan for low income people. If he's above 150% of poverty level he probably has health insurance available at work or thru ACA. In fact is legally obligated to.
Re:What I learned from reading a thousand emergency room bills
by normal_man on Thursday December 20, 2018 @09:19AM
(#18725042)
It's entirely possible to have health coverage and still be financially ruined by a health emergency due to deductibles and pre-existing condition loopholes.
If he had the same disease in US, he would die much earlier than he did, I'm 100% certain of it, because quite simply there is no way he could afford the treatment or the premiums that americans are paying for their healthcare. Even when he was sick enough that he couldn't work anymore, he was still 100% covered and didn't have to pay anything for anything ever.
My point is - there are people in our countries who are probably dying because they have to wait months to be seen by someone. True. But there are also people in US who are dying because they cannot afford the treatment they need. I feel like this is far worse than the first situation - after all, we only have a finite number of doctors, a finite amount of hospitals, and limited capacity to add more(for reasons other than financial too). But US is the richest country in the world - and its citizens die because they cannot afford cancer drugs? That's abhorrent.