Originally posted by: Mursilis
Originally posted by: Throckmorton
The reason they devour huge chunks of the budget is because they cover the most at risk people who also happen to not be paying taxes.
What do you mean when you say care gets limited? AFAIK if an Australian needs a million dollar (or whatever they cost there) heart surgery, he gets it. If an American needs it, he gets it and either his insurance pays or he's in debt until he dies and the hospital ends up eating the cost.
If you truly believe that, you're really not qualified to speak on these matters. Sure, plenty of people are given care the hospital reasonably believes they will never pay for (I used to work in a hospital, and uninsured people were coded in the records system as "self-pay", which the entire staff joked meant "no-pay"), but plenty of people are flat-out denied care, unless the care was required to absolutely save thier life right now. Patient-dumping is very common.