I should add, that indeed sometimes you are not turned away at an ER - sometimes they take you in, run up some high bills - and then send you away with advice l

I should add, that indeed sometimes you are not turned away at an ER - sometimes they take you in, run up some high bills - and then send you away with advice like - follow up with your primary care doc (they know you don't have one) - follow up with a dentist (they know you can't afford one) - and you get a big bill, along with no treatment, or in some cases a script for antibiotics but no fix in sight for the underlying cause of the infection. I've seen others handed bills for a couple thousand bucks and they got zero treatment. I myself entered an ER once and walked out with a script for pain pills and antibiotic along with a bill for over about $1,800 - and then got another bill for another $800 or so.. (they did run a urine test and let me talk to a doctor) then 60 days a later a letter stating that they know I own property at XXX address and that if they sued me $3,000 they could force the sale of my home to collect. When I was in there, they wanted to run some sort of xray or cat scan or something - but I told the doc I could not afford it - and I asked him what he was going to do for treatment if the scan came back and said this X or that Y or whatever Z - he said the treatment he would provide would be a script for antibiotics and pain pills (for each of the issues that could of been determined with scans). - So I skipped the most expensive thing. Let me also tell people not from here, that you need to get a goodRx card or similar - you can find these discount drug cards at various places... for years I paid retail price for drugs at the pharmacies (best to call around to price shop or find a price comparison site if you don't care about privacy) - it's amazing how much cheaper the drugs are when you have a stupid plastic card. Something I had been paying like $120 for time and again turned out to be only $13.50 once I picked up a free plastic card at some random place and put that on file. So even partial treatment can be expensive. It's one of the reasons 'medical bankruptcies' are the highest category for going extra broke here. It's also one of the reasons a lot of folks here don't get preventive health care and end up in an ER in the first place. Also a reason a lot of folks don't get care and have major issues arise from a smallish thing like a tooth cavity. *chuckles at 'dangerous misunderstandings about Us healthcare' - then sighs and holds back a tear.