RE: If You Can't Afford it, You can't AFFORD it!
"You can either borrow the money and pay, or you can be DEAD... or at least permanently disabled."
I don't know, maybe it's the state you live in but from what I understand is that hospitals can't refuse to treat someone with a life threatening condition based on ability to pay. I am pretty sure private hospitals have to live by that mandate also, they have to treat all life threatening conditions and/or stabilize the person before considering transport to another hospital. I think I've talked about this before here on one of your threads but here we have sliding scale fee clinics and if you have no ability to pay you are seen free. There is so much outreach here it's unreal in comparison to what I read from people along the west coast. I only thing I think is different is the fact the population factor, to much population and not enough resources, couple that with the high cost of living to live out there. If you moved to Michigan you could more than likely live like a king just off the drop of what you are paying to live out there and you'd be out of debt in no time. There can't be a huge difference in living off a lake shore than a ocean shore, it's all water as far as you can see, it's all blue, the sunsets the same way and the moon goes down just the same.
Well, you're absolutely right about life-threatening conditions and treatment — same laws apply in Washington state.
Needing rotator cuff surgery isn't "life threatening." It just mean you live with constant pain, and gradually lose range of motion to where you can't lift your hands above your shoulders. Not life threatening at all, and the pain could certainly be managed with some heavy duty pharmaceuticals that leave you loopy and doped up for the rest of your life. And if you "play your cards right," you can probably get on disability because you can't effectively work at much... often including sitting at a desk typing. Not much of a life, though, if you're otherwise a vital end energetic human being.
We actually moved west from the Akron/Cleveland, OH area to get away from endless winters, lake effect snows and endless rows of depressive dereliction, ghettos and high unemployment. No palce is perfect. On the balance, we're better off here. And even though the Ohio River no longer catches on fire, we still prefer the air quality here...
Wouldn't living on pain killers have a similar result.
I heard Ohio really sucks for air quality.
Yes, I have to agree, winters do tend to take their toll on you mentally.