[purple_peon]

Very rare around this area. In fact, the emergency rooms here won't fully treat people sometimes because of lack of a regular doctor, which requires payment and regular checkups and things the poor cannot do. "free clinics" drop off not too far from the poverty line.

That person with stage 4 liver cancer? What if it were skin cancer - it looked funny, but they can't get it checked out. Until it is an emergency... and by then it could be too late. Even then, the emergency room will say it is too big to treat from there and refer to the normal doctor most times. This isn't top notch medical care. This is "suffer until it is dire, and maybe you'll wind up surviving in pain"

I'd much rather pay an insurance tax so everyone is covered. I doubt it would be much more than people pay now for insurance since everyone would be paying in.