Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by jnbiche 2631 days ago
If you're poor in the US, insurance is free. It's the lower middle class and middle class who are frequently bankrupted by these costs.
3 comments

> If you're poor in the US, insurance is free

Depends on if the individual's state accepted Medicaid expansion funds from the federal government (states like Texas and Florida haven't) and whether the individual makes less than ~$16.5k/yr.

I wouldn't call either $0k/yr in North Carolina, or $17k/yr in New York, lower middle class. Neither of those incomes in those places would give an individual access to Medicaid.

Assuming you can find a doctor taking new Medicaid patients.
Hahaha. Sure.

Good luck finding a Medicaid provider.

Every doctor I see is a Medicaid provider. Yes, there are doctor who don't accept it, but it's not hard where I'm from to find a doctor who does (perhaps we have an oversupply of doctors?).
"Medicaid provider" and "Medicaid provider taking new patients" are not the same thing. They'll usually set a maximum number of Medicaid patients for the practice, and there'll be a long waiting list for that.