In Bloomington, IN if your income is below a certain level, there is a whole office of volunteer doctors that will treat you. I've got a few friends that go there and love it. A friend of mine broke his foot over the summer and got a cast and crutches and everything for free.
If your uninsured appendix bursts, the volunteer doctors are unlikely to keep you from going bankrupt. The health care problem isn't "doctor visits are too expensive".
yep, it is the catastrophic that gets most people.
I really wish the administration had tried to take some baby steps instead of going for something they are giving waivers to avoid and really not explaining how their thing would be different from the VA or IHS.
A "flood"-style insurance to protect against the catastrophic, and changing the Health savings accounts to be easier and inheritable probably would have been good first steps.
It's argued to be part of the problem, though. When doctor's visits are expensive, minor problems escalate because they aren't caught early enough to be cheap to deal with.
At least, that's the argument. I don't claim to be an expert in these things.
