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Originally Posted by CyberSEO
How much? Say for the ambulance transfer, appendix surgery and the hospital stay + meds?
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At least a few thousand dollars. My niece broke her leg a few years ago. My brother took her to the hospital in his car so there was no ambulance ride. She had to have the bone reset then got a cast. Total is was about $4,000. You can assume at least another $1,000+ if you had to go in an ambulance.
She was covered under his insurance so most of it was paid for by that, but it is still a crazy high price for spending a few hours in the hospital.
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I see, but actually it sounds really scare. Especially about the cancer. In my country everybody will get a free treatment in case of cancer, HIV or any other potential fatal disease. Course that will be not the best meds, but at least they will be the essential ones. So does it mean that in your country a person with a cancer, hepatitis or HIV will left to die if he/she has no paid insurance money for the meds?
For example, my father is a former boxer, so he has a Parkinson's disease, and ye is receiving all the meds for free. Even his wheelchair is free because he is disabled.
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It depends. Most states have some kind of a welfare style health insurance. If you are very poor or disabled you can get it and be covered. If you are disabled you can also get federal disability which normally gives you some money and some health insurance.
The people that end up screwed are the ones that have too much money to be considered for the poor/welfare insurance, but not enough to pay for their meds or treatment. There are a lot of charity organizations that can help as well, but there are people who end up dying or getting worse because they can't afford it.
One of the problems is how long it takes to get any kind of government help. Several years ago my mom got very sick. Her doctors says she would qualify for disability. We applied for regular disability and "emergency" help which wouldn't be much money, but would arrive quickly. The "emergency" help took 9 months to kick in.