What would happen if I come injured and unconscious at a hospital without insurance?

Here is a summary of preexisting conditions provisions just to save you reading and prove your dearth of knowledge about Obamacare: it is from this link.

https://www.healthcare.gov/health-care-law-protections/pre-existing-conditions/


Health insurance companies can't refuse to cover you or charge you more just because you have a pre-existing condition. They also can’t charge women more than men.

Being sick won't keep you from getting coverage

Your insurance company can't turn you down or charge you more because of your pre-existing health or medical condition like asthma, back pain, diabetes, or cancer. Once you have insurance, they can't refuse to cover treatment for your pre-existing condition.

This is true even if you’ve been turned down or refused coverage due to a pre-existing condition in the past.

Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) also can't refuse to cover you or charge you more because of your pre-existing condition.

When you get care for a pre-existing condition, you’ll still need to pay any deductibles, copayments, and coinsurance your plan requires. It doesn’t matter whether you’re being treated for a pre-existing or new health condition.

One exception: Grandfathered plans

The only exception to the pre-existing coverage rule is for grandfathered individual health insurance plans -- the kind you buy yourself, not through an employer. They don’t have to cover pre-existing conditions.

If you have one of these plans you can switch to a Marketplace plan that covers pre-existing conditions.

You can do this during open enrollment, but be sure to contact your insurance company first to learn about how and when you can cancel your current plan.
You can also buy a Marketplace plan outside open enrollment when your grandfathered plan year ends. Your plan ending gives you a Special Enrollment Period to enroll in different coverage.

The first sentence is a total rebuttal of you oft repeated claim that the ACA allows more to be charged for preexisting conditions. But I suggest you read the whole thing.

 

Literally. Imagine you're an un/underinsured person and you get an ache in your chest. If you think going to the ER will bankrupt you, how much longer will you wait before going to the doctor trying to convince yourself it's heartburn, and how much more of your myocardium will die as a result?

What really happens is they get expensive care, and then go bankrupt. Healthcare has been the number one cause of personal bankruptcy in America. Doubt the ACA will change that.

Mostly with regards to disincentivizing preventive care and not spending much on public health. America's critical care is pretty good, but the number one killers these days are chronic and initially asymptomatic issues that can be cheaply managed but aren't when primary care is underutilized, which happens in a for-profit system without full primary care coverage.

That's not true. ER doctors will consult various specialists depending upon the condition if it's something outside of their usual scope of practice. Burn patients and orthopedic injuries are examples I've seen in peds ER. The orthopedic doctors will usually decide the disposition of patients with non-routine fractures - e.g. whether they should be admitted, or whether the surgery can be planned for later, or if they can just be casted and sent on their way. I have seen cases where the orthopedic practice didn't accept their indigent insurance though, so their fracture may not end up healing properly.

Right... It's so simple to do that when you're unconscious and bleeding. Or when you've been diagnosed with some grave but expensively treatable condition. What would you pay to save your life?

Experience treating patients tells you almost nothing about how healthcare works on a macroscopic scale. Now, owning a private practice will tell you something, but that's not the typical model for healthcare these days.

That's true. But given equal incomes, the in-network (PPO) or insured patients will do better because the insurance companies leverage their purchasing power to negotiate for better prices (except Medicare, thanks Congress) in all areas of healthcare. That's the point of a PPO - volume security for less pay. I suppose it could work differently for small practices. When you're talking about the financial black hole that is the ER, yes the main idea is avoiding bankrupting people because then you don't collect - so you try to work with them to get something.

Yes, most of the time they don't even know what things cost at the hospital.

Anecdotal, n=1.

 

Constant confusion between what is charged and what is actually required to be paid. Uninsured patients may actually get a reduction in what is charged if they negotiate successfully but the will still end up actually paying much more than a large insurance company for the same procedures.

If the claimed 25% cost reduction from paying cash were actually true then cash paying patients should be required to pay 25% less than that paid by large insurance companies. Never happens.

 

The PPACA singled out past and present smoking as a pre-existing condition. The insurance companies have always charged higher premiums if an applicant has been a smoker or still is. Smoking is an addiction. Because the PPACA decided smoking is not a pre-existing condition that increased premium costs, insurance companies remain free to increase premiums due to smoking.

 

It is he only exception to the law that insurance companies cannot charge more for a behavior. You will have to quote the exact passage on the law that says smoking is classified as a preexisting condition.

And it is still no proof of your claim that insurance companies can charge more for preexisting conditions. Even granting it's status as a condition it is the only exception.