Boris Johnson, PM of the UK, got his COVID care from the National Health Service, and while I imagine he got some VIP treatment, the delta between rich and poor in the US is the same as life and death. It's not an issue of an extra comfy pillow and a room with a view, it's being left to die because you can't afford treatment. Other countries don't do that.

It is not being left to die because you can’t afford treatment. It is bad enough that we don’t need to exaggerate.

> It is not being left to die because you can’t afford treatment. It is bad enough that we don’t need to exaggerate.

If you don't have the money to pay, hospitals in the US are only required by law to stabilize you. So, for instance, if you can't afford cancer treatment, you'll likely die of untreated cancer.

In South Carolina, where I work for a hospital, you automatically qualify for Medicaid when you’re diagnosed with cancer.

This way people don’t die from untreated cancer.

Getting diagnosed early when uninsured is where we fail as a society. Our politicians cover up this failure by giving them Medicaid so we spend $500k treating advanced disease and they still die, rather than universal coverage.

Yup, the cost of delayed care is quite often lives.

There are many reports of people self-rationing insulin and dying as a result. That's as close to "left to die because you can't afford treatment" as it's possible to get without murder charges.

> it's being left to die because you can't afford treatment

What? Emergency rooms can't refuse people in the US.

People who can’t afford the cost or just don’t want to pay the exorbitant cost will avoid going, even if it means their lives.

Having chest pain? What if it’s just indigestion, you don’t want to go to the ER and have a $5000 bill. Oops, it was a heart attack and you’re dead. This is an actual discussion I had with one of my parents. Luckily, in that case it wasn’t a heart attack, but this is the patient-hostile system we’re working with.

The thing I always say is that when you allow health organizations and insurance companies to be for-profit, profit is going to be prioritized over health.

No, but they can still let you die after they stabilized you.

The definition of money is more or less “the capacity of access to goods”. What is the problem here?

A lack of empathy.