What happens when someone cant pay for health care in the US?

Answer 1

Depends on what's needed. The US and most other healthcare systems have the means for dealing with a sudden trauma, mostly because it's thrust on them. Someone in bad shape shows up in the ER, and there are tons of reasons, some altruistic and some practical, to treat this person to get them over the emergency. And most healthcare systems do this relatively well.

In the US, the governing code is probably EMTALA (Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act), which says that a patient with an emergency presenting at an ER must be treated, regardless of ability to pay. After the fact, there's usually an attempt to recoup some of the billing. This can take the form of billing the patient, civil litigation, attempts to recover from government programs, or even just writing the debt off and recovering this as an expense against profit. Bottom line is that emergent, short duration trauma get treated, and usually treated pretty well, until the condition allows for the patient to be released.

Chronic disorders are another matter. If the patient can't pay and CAN be sent home, they usually will be. If they can get on government support, great, but it's not easy. For example, if you're completely indigent, it's virtually impossible in most places that dont have great public transportation to get to all the many and varied appointments required to qualify for something like IMS (Indigent Medical Service). In LA it's not too hard, but in rural areas it's difficult.

Once you're on such a program, it's not uncommon to be stuck with a co-pay -- a payment to the physician or pharmacy that's required, theoretically, as a means to ensure the patient is really sick and not just defrauding the insurance company. If they can't afford the co-pay -- no meds or treatment. If they CAN afford the co-pay -- often they make too much income to qualify for the service, at least en toto. And if they carry their own insurance, the insurance payments are counted the same way as if they spend that money gambling in Las Vegas -- it's not deducted from their base income, so again, it can be a disqualifier.

In these cases, the typical modality is that the patient waits untreated until the disease progresses and an emergent condition occurs. Then they're hospitalized until they can be stabilized and released. And the cycle repeats.

The end of the cycle is pretty obvious. Eventually emergency care doesn't fix the problem, and -- to be brutally frank -- a dead chronic patient is a cost-free patient.

Answer 2

It depends on the state where you reside. Some states offer more help to those who cannot afford to pay for healthcare. Other states offer very little.