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But what if poor people in America get Ebola? They can't afford health care, so may end up hiding their illness to avoid the insane amounts of debt they would g

But what if poor people in America get Ebola? They can't afford health care, so may end up hiding their illness to avoid the insane amounts of debt they would get themselves into.

SoftwareMaven 12y ago
Nobody in the US can be denied emergency medical care, regardless of ability to pay. Poor people already know this, which is why inner-city emergency rooms are overwhelmed with things like "my baby has a cough", making a $50 office visit a $400 bill that will get written off.
- erichocean 12y ago
  > Poor people already know this, which is why inner-city emergency rooms are overwhelmed with things like "my baby has a cough" The idea that poor children are just left to fend for themselves on basic healthcare like treating a cough in the US is blatantly false. Poor people who know about the emergency rooms also know that normal healthcare is available for poor children for free from the government, which they get and then take their kids to the doctor like everyone else when they have a cough. Seriously, the hysteria around people not having healthcare in the US is just incredible relative to the actual facts on the ground. Even if you believe Obama's "40 million without healthcare" claim (I don't), that's just 12% of the country, and the two most vulnerable populations—children and the elderly–were fully covered by the state already without the Obamacare regs. There are real problems with the US healthcare system; we don't need to start spouting nonsense like poor children can only get a cough treated at the emergency room for free.
  - SoftwareMaven 12y ago
    My wife works as a pediatric nurse; the doctor she worked for until recently treated predominately Hispanic, Medicaid-insured children. She sees first hand what gets covered and what doesn't. For illegal immigrants and their children, the options are very limited (though many do choose to self-pay at doctors' offices). My point wasn't what isn't available. My point was that, regardless of ability to pay or any other factor, everybody in America has access to the American health care system for acute treatment (something Ebola would certainly be classified as). Whether you can make it to a doctor's office or are stuck at the ER for your kid's cold depends on a lot of other factors, but, even then, your kid will get seen for that cold. I don't know where you got "hysteria" from...

But what if poor people in America get Ebola? They can't afford health care, so may end up hiding their illness to avoid the insane amounts of debt they would get themselves into.

SoftwareMaven 12y ago

Nobody in the US can be denied emergency medical care, regardless of ability to pay. Poor people already know this, which is why inner-city emergency rooms are overwhelmed with things like "my baby has a cough", making a $50 office visit a $400 bill that will get written off.

erichocean 12y ago
> Poor people already know this, which is why inner-city emergency rooms are overwhelmed with things like "my baby has a cough" The idea that poor children are just left to fend for themselves on basic healthcare like treating a cough in the US is blatantly false. Poor people who know about the emergency rooms also know that normal healthcare is available for poor children for free from the government, which they get and then take their kids to the doctor like everyone else when they have a cough. Seriously, the hysteria around people not having healthcare in the US is just incredible relative to the actual facts on the ground. Even if you believe Obama's "40 million without healthcare" claim (I don't), that's just 12% of the country, and the two most vulnerable populations—children and the elderly–were fully covered by the state already without the Obamacare regs. There are real problems with the US healthcare system; we don't need to start spouting nonsense like poor children can only get a cough treated at the emergency room for free.
- SoftwareMaven 12y ago
  My wife works as a pediatric nurse; the doctor she worked for until recently treated predominately Hispanic, Medicaid-insured children. She sees first hand what gets covered and what doesn't. For illegal immigrants and their children, the options are very limited (though many do choose to self-pay at doctors' offices). My point wasn't what isn't available. My point was that, regardless of ability to pay or any other factor, everybody in America has access to the American health care system for acute treatment (something Ebola would certainly be classified as). Whether you can make it to a doctor's office or are stuck at the ER for your kid's cold depends on a lot of other factors, but, even then, your kid will get seen for that cold. I don't know where you got "hysteria" from...