Can you imagine having to do this?

[MooseMom]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/health/puerto-rico-vieques-dialysis-partner/index.html

How could it be possible that it has taken so long for this situation to be rectified?  It's all about the money.  No one wants to pay.

[iolaire]

That's rough. 

[Paul]

Until about 100 years ago much of the world was "owned" by a handful of western European countries, who were by far the most developed countries in the world (with, by the end of that time scale, the exception of North America, but they took their technology from these European countries with their immigrants). The general theory on how those countries managed to achieve this was that they had a fairly stable environment and natural disasters like the one mentioned in that link were rare or non existent. Seeing from that link how much damage and hardship this hurricane caused these people, I can see how this theory seems to be true. Can you imagine how much worse it would have been back they before aeroplanes had been invented, and you had to travel by boat (not for us, as dialysis had not been invented then, but for other medical conditions)?

[Simon Dog]

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/18/health/puerto-rico-vieques-dialysis-partner/index.html

How could it be possible that it has taken so long for this situation to be rectified?  It's all about the money.  No one wants to pay.

It's like the old bumper sticker in the days of hitchhiking - cash, grass or ass ... nobody rides for free.

We let people die who can't pay for treatment all the time in this country,   In fact, one local hospital denied my wife treatment for a critical condition because they did not want to deal with the issue of sorting out which of two insurance policies (auto or medical) would pay.   It was no big deal because another great hospital wanted her business, but the issue was clear - we care first about the money and second about treating people    But, of course, welfare (medicaid) people would have been welcomed because to do otherwise would be to discriminate against minorities.

[MooseMom]

Simon Dog, I'm glad your wife was able to get treatment despite the bickering.

I am assuming, though, that you don't really mean that it is only "minorities" who use Medicaid.

[Simon Dog]

I am assuming, though, that you don't really mean that it is only "minorities" who use Medicaid.

That was not my implication.

What I meant was that a major teaching hospital in an urban area would face accusations that refusing Medicaid customers was tantamount to racial discrimination, since those customers are more likely to be diverse than customers selected on the basis of being well insured.

Our current insurance policy specifically excludes the Mass General Hospital and several others run by Partners because the carrier could not come to the cost agreement with that corporation. 
Even so, those Partners hospitals still accept Medicaid patients despite the fact that Medicaid pays less than the amount our insurance carrier offered to pay Partners hospitals.  That is due in part to the fact that the employer-based plan my wife on is statistically not that diverse, so turning down those patients is not a proxy for racial discrimination.

[MooseMom]

I'm sorry that you and your wife had to get caught up in any sort of insurance predicament.

[Xplantdad]

I am assuming, though, that you don't really mean that it is only "minorities" who use Medicaid.

That was not my implication.

What I meant was that a major teaching hospital in an urban area would face accusations that refusing Medicaid customers was tantamount to racial discrimination, since those customers are more likely to be diverse than customers selected on the basis of being well insured.

Our current insurance policy specifically excludes the Mass General Hospital and several others run by Partners because the carrier could not come to the cost agreement with that corporation. 
Even so, those Partners hospitals still accept Medicaid patients despite the fact that Medicaid pays less than the amount our insurance carrier offered to pay Partners hospitals.  That is due in part to the fact that the employer-based plan my wife on is statistically not that diverse, so turning down those patients is not a proxy for racial discrimination.

This...has happened to us more times than we can count. Lucky we are at Mayo now.