If I go to the emergency room they'll send me a bill....

[d9f1c7]

Just watched Panorama. It's about the richest most uncivilised nation on Earth. Why can't the US get this really basic thing sorted?

[ludwig]

// Which attempts are you thinking of, ludwig? I don't know of any. //

Any possible future ones m'lord. Please re-examine my testimony and you'll see it makes no presumption of the existence of any current or previous such attempts.

[jamesnan]

Well, I answer as an ordinary person, who was talking to another ordinary person in Florida, and she was telling me things I really had no idea about (see my previous answer). All I know is that the general public are really scared to be ill, because they are either not able to afford the insurance, or as was told to me, after an insurance claim, the company refused to have anything to do with them. At least we in the UK know we get treatment, even if we have to sit around and wait for ages for it.

[ludwig]

That's the trouble with insurance companies. They love you when you're just paying the premium, but as soon as you make a claim they go straight into 'How can we get out of paying' mode.

There's often a reason why they can't pay for your cancer treatment - perhaps you had a veruca 20 years ago and didn't tell them about it - something like that.

If they can't get out of paying, they punish you by quadrupling your premiums to make the money back, or refusing to insure you altogether from then onward.

Anyone who thinks their NI contributions are better spent going to a private sector health insurance company is delusional.