As someone who has actually studied the problem in the States, I can tell you this. A lot of families out their do their damnedest to stay within the medicaid bracket, and for good reason. You are totally boned if you step foot outside of it, as you will be even poorer and without any kind of medical coverage. The whole social insurance thing of the states to me really seems designed to trap people at a certain socioeconomic level I must say, as the gulf between it and being gainfully employed at a sustainable and covered level is gigantic, and extremely difficult to cross.
As someone who is currently working in the medical field (an adolescent mental health inpatient unit), I've also learned to utterly despise insurance companies.
It makes me miss Canada. Sure we may have to pay more taxes, but I don't have to worry about my (or future kids) medical stays bankrupting my family (Which would have happened given my medical history as a child, and that would have been with some very top notch insurance that my father would have had as a senior executive).
|