US healthcare

stuff u may or may not know about the US healthcare system:

If you don't have medicaid, medicare, or private insurance, there are no hospitals anywhere u can go to. I thought that there were a few "public" hospitals in the US, but no, even those ones, u must have Medicaid/medicare... otherwise, they have the right to refuse treatment to you, even if u're dying. (whether or not they do refuse you depends on the hospital/staff, i geuss).

in the US, the vaccination programs (public health) are federally funded. So your baby, regardless of whether or not you/ur baby has insurance, can be vaccinated, etc. One of our tutor's friends works as an OB in Chicago (or somewhere in the US... i froget now)... anyway, the hospital would put residents outside in the PARKING lot sometimes to help ppl deliver their babies! and that's being NICE (the alternative is that the women receive no medical attention whatsoever).... after she gives birth, then the resident can bring the baby inside the hospital for it to be treated/vaccinated/checked/whatever. but the mom gets no post-natal care if she's not insured by something. (i guess that means if she hemorrhages, she gets no treatment. Hemorrhaging = death if not immediately treated... it's relatively common)

*sigh* ... such an odd/bad system....
then again, the Cdn system has MANY flaws too... but at least if u're in dire need, there's no way anyone would ever refuse to treat u.... O.o ... i guess it's just smt i can't fathom... i mean, doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, which in essence says "do no harm"... but by refusing treatment, that's exactly what u're doing: Harm (b/c in many cases, they die from preventable/treatable things). i just don't understand..... o.O ... how can those doctors sleep at night?!?!

(sorry, my american friends! I hope u guys have insurance!! [i'm pretty sure u do... right?])