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> Try getting healthcare in the US without health insurance, and try affording health insurance when you don't have good enough work. I'm not offering an opini
by CivBase 7y ago
> Try getting healthcare in the US without health insurance, and try affording health insurance when you don't have good enough work.
I'm not offering an opinion here. I just think the distinction between health care and insurance is important.
The original post I was responding to implies to some that you need a job to receive treatment. It also conversely implies that having a job means you can get treatment. I've actually talked to people outside the US who think that because of how our discussions are often worded.
> You edited your post to add a line about emergency healthcare being a legal obligation of hospitals
I'm sorry. I often think of things to add to my post right after submitting. I was editing it before I saw your response.
> we both know that emergency healthcare (i.e. "I am literally dying right this second") is not the total of necessary healthcare for many people.
I agree, which is why I specified that the right only extends to life-threatening emergencies.
- seanmcdirmid 7y agoEmergency care means they stabilize you so you won’t die right away and then kick you out. Many of the things that you will die from will never even qualify for it, e.g. treatment for cancer. You need money, insurance, or real charity to get care for that.
- eropple 7y agoIf you're not offering an opinion through the kind of hair-splitting that elides the immediate and generally permanently life-wrecking consequences of not having health insurance, then that hair-splitting serves very little purpose. On the other hand, if your opinion is that the status quo is acceptable, it allows you to rhetorically minimize those consequences because, hey, at least they're not dead, even if the best way out of that debt can seem to be suicide[0]. If you believe that, you've bilged a test of basic humanity. If you don't, perhaps re-think what drives your well-actuallies in the future? [0] - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elderly-couple-found-dead-in-apparent-murder-suicide-left-notes-about-high-medical-bills/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elderly-couple-found-dead-in-ap...
- CivBase 7y agoI gave a reason for my "splitting hairs" and you conveniently ignored it. Stop projecting opinions that are not mine onto my post. I believe the health care and insurance industries in the US is broken and does not adequately serve a huge portion of citizens with low incomes. I have never suggested the current system is okay. If your opinion is reliant on misinformation, you should reevaluate it. Otherwise, you should not be concerned with someone like me "splitting hairs".
- vertex-four 7y agoIn the US, the distinction between having health insurance and being able to receive necessary healthcare is not a huge distinction. Fairly sure you know this.
- CivBase 7y agoI would consider a distinction between financial ruin and death to be fairly significant. That doesn't mean I think a system that so frequently results in financial ruin is acceptable. My intention is not to say "you're just broke, you're not dead". Quite the opposite. My intention is to say that health care access is not limited by whether you have a job - it's whether you have money. Plenty of people have money but no job and even more have jobs but no money.
- vertex-four 7y agoEmergency healthcare prevents some causes of death - generally, those which can be fixed in an ER and allow the person to continue living a mostly normal life after. Take the example of a diabetic person, or a suicidally depressed person, as counter-examples which cannot be fixed in an A&E environment and will lead to death.