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Comment by malvosenior | Hacker News Reader

> It’s unfortunate how our healthcare system mirrors some sort of class-based hierarchy: If you can afford it, great! Else, get fucked.

It's not widely known in the upper/upper middle classes but healthcare is more or less free if you're poor in the US (even for major things like cancer treatment). It's really the middle class that has it the worst as they don't qualify for free health care.

Edit:

Some additional information to back up my assertion:

72.5 million people are covered by Medicaid: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/eligibility/index.html

The vast majority of medical services are available for free to Medicaid members: https://www.medicaid.gov/medicaid/benefits/index.html

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> healthcare is more or less free if you're poor in the US

If you qualify for Medicaid, you have government-provided insurance available, but that doesn't mean care is free even then, because Medicaid rules allow state plans to incorporate either or both of premiums and beneficiary cost sharing as part of the state Medicaid plans.

Also note that many people (particularly adults) that would meet many definitions of poor are not qualified for Medicaid, because several states don't cover adults (especially non-parents) with Medicaid above a small fraction of the federal poverty level (and sometimes not at all for non-parents).

See, https://www.kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/medicaid-i...

I was on Medicaid just a few years ago. It was definitely a lifesend, but the network is very tiny and, as a result, scheduling visits with specialists (in my experience, so anecdotally) took about three months.

I am very grateful I was not on Medicaid during the past few months. But I am happy it’s an option.

scheduling visits with specialists (in my experience, so anecdotally) took about three months.

From my own experience, that's approximately what it takes to schedule a specialist visit in the UK.

Unless (surprise!) you have a private insurance.

Emergency healthcare is free. Cancer treatment might be free, but good luck seeing the specialists needed to get that treatment without some very explicit charity.

This is incorrect. You can see specialists for free as well. There are no restrictions on treatment.

Maybe if they already know you have cancer, but just some symptoms? The emergency room typically isn’t going to make a cancer diagnosis.

A lot of healthcare is simply best effort, and you won’t typically get that best effort if you aren’t paying.

Medicade is full blown health coverage, it's not just for emergency room visits: https://www.medicaid.gov/

> Medicade is full blown health coverage,

Medicaid is (1) not available to anywhere close to all poor people in the US (though it would have been for a particular poverty definition had ACA expansion been universal), and (2) doesn't provide free care to all the poor people to whom it is available (both premiums and cost sharing—effectively, deductibles—are allowed in State Medicaid plans), and (3) very often does have limits on available services, so while Medicaid exists, it does not meet the description made of healthcare being free in the US if you are poor without treatment restrictions that has been made.

> You can see specialists for free as well

What specific program are you talking about? Because you're wrong when you state this as an unqualified generality about poor people in the US, but identifying the exact error requires knowing what program you think is involved.

> There are no restrictions on treatment.

There is no program for low income healthcare for which this is true.

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