I realise it’s to impede people from buying insurance only when they need it.
But why would I buy it before I need it?
Why is this the norm? What do poor people do when they need healthcare?
What do people do when they run out of coverage and treatments are expensive?
As an international student, it would cost me about the same to fly back to my country, get the treatment and come back here.
Apparently, there’s no concept of emergency appointments as well, even if you have extreme tooth ache you’re supposed to wait weeks for your appointment at the dentist.
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It’s insurance in case something happens to you. Trip and fall and break your arm? Sorry pal no insurance give me $5000
We have emergency appointments. We have Emergency Rooms, urgent Care places, and emergency doctors. My tooth fell out on a Sunday a couple years ago and I went to an emergency dentist that day.
The whole point of insurance is to spread the risk pool among healthy patients as well and encourage preventative services.
Insurance would be useless if everyone waited until they needed healthcare to apply for an insurance plan.
Insurance relies on people paying premiums when they aren’t sick so that it can pay their medical bills when they are sick.
If you only signed up for insurance when you got sick, the insurance company would immediately go bankrupt, because they’d have to pay out so much more than you paid in.
When poor people need healthcare they either have insurance, have access to Medicaid, rack up bills they can’t pay, or get charity care.
I’m not sure what you mean by “run out of coverage,” but if your insurance doesn’t cover something expensive you can either pay for it yourself or do without, just like in your country.
If you can get cheaper treatment in your country, you should do that.
And I’m not sure where you got the idea that there are no emergency appointments, both my dentist and doctor have seen me on the same day as I needed them in the past, and for something more serious I’d go to an emergency room.
If you’re an international student, your insurance is probably covered by the university. I’d recommend checking your student handbook and consult student health services for specifics about your plan.
And I don’t know where you heard about emergency appointments, but we have those.
Emergency dentists are a thing and exist, bear with me now, explicitly for emergency cases.
And how do you propose insurance companies come up with the money to insure you if nobody is paying their premiums?
>I realise
Whatever it is, I don’t think you do.
>But why would I buy it before I need it?
Because that’s how insurance works in literally every context where a person buys insurance no matter where they buy insurance. Buying insurance after you need it is called “insurance fraud.”
>As an international student, it would cost me about the same to fly back to my country, get the treatment and come back here.
Then do that. Enjoy the taxpayer funded subsidies of MyCountry to your heart’s content.
>Apparently, there’s no concept of emergency appointments as well, even if you have extreme tooth ache you’re supposed to wait weeks for your appointment at the dentist.
…this resembles literally no insurance regime I’ve encountered, but okay.
>Apparently, there’s no concept of emergency appointments as well, even if you have extreme tooth ache you’re supposed to wait weeks for your appointment at the dentist.
Where did you get this idea from? We have all sorts of emergency care. The shit Y’all make up never ceases to amaze me.
I woke up one morning, felt a lump on my testicle in the shower, called my doctor, he saw me that afternoon. Sent me for an MRI and a sonogram that day. A couple of days later I had a visit with a surgeon and had a biopsy the next week. Seems pretty reasonable to. Me.
You buy it before you need it so that you have it when you need it. Some people don’t have great plans, which is one reason medical tourism is a thing. A lot of people go to Mexico when they need significant dental procedures, for example.
Insurance plans vary, so some people might run out of coverage and go bankrupt or have to be selective about what treatments they can get. My plan has unlimited coverage with no copay and a low deductible, so I don’t have to worry about that.
We have emergency care, including for dental issues. I don’t know why you think we don’t.
> What do poor people do when they need healthcare?
Depending on the state, most get Medicaid or subsidies for insurance.
> What do people do when they run out of coverage and treatments are expensive?
Standard insurance generally doesn’t have a cap on medical care. There are caps on long term nursing care, but Medicaid can kick in. The deductibles and max out of pocket reset annually, and can be a financial problem for lower income people, but you didn’t ask that, and the people affected can often arrange payment plans or negotiated rates.
This is not to say that no one slips through the cracks, which is why many of us want some sort of universal health insurance or healthcare. But it’s not as common a problem as you may think.
>What do poor people do when they need healthcare?
They’re usually covered by Medicaid.
>Apparently, there’s no concept of emergency appointments as well, even if you have extreme tooth ache you’re supposed to wait weeks for your appointment at the dentist.
Try a different dentist office. Some doctors are just super busy, but there should be a dentist nearby that can see you immediately.