At the time I lived in NYC (2007-2013), Me and family had needed urgent care services 3 times. In all three times, we called insurer (Aetna once, United twice), and they told us to go to ER because there is no better option.
Things may be different now, last time I visited manhattan a few months ago indeed there were several walk-in clinics between 8th street and 23th that weren't there 5 years ago, but (at least from the sign on the window), not all accepted all insurances, and none had a chargemaster listed outside, which means there's a nontrivial possibility one would go bankrupt going into them.
> Just because you can use them in the UK or wherever doesn't mean you should, and there is nothing to disincentivise people from this because they're not footing the bill (directly, that is).
That's true. And if people did misuse them significantly, I'm sure the (dis)incentive structure would be put in place. But it turns out that most people in the UK and EU and other places are not jerks, and do not call an ambulance needlessly.
It is a mathematical certainty that there is always a false-positive / false-negative tradeoff; The US system (and your recommendation) prefers false negatives, the EU system and other single payer systems prefer false positives. And .. what do you know? Bang for buck, single payer systems triumph greatly, have lower infant death, and higher life expectancy.
Things may be different now, last time I visited manhattan a few months ago indeed there were several walk-in clinics between 8th street and 23th that weren't there 5 years ago, but (at least from the sign on the window), not all accepted all insurances, and none had a chargemaster listed outside, which means there's a nontrivial possibility one would go bankrupt going into them.
> Just because you can use them in the UK or wherever doesn't mean you should, and there is nothing to disincentivise people from this because they're not footing the bill (directly, that is).
That's true. And if people did misuse them significantly, I'm sure the (dis)incentive structure would be put in place. But it turns out that most people in the UK and EU and other places are not jerks, and do not call an ambulance needlessly.
It is a mathematical certainty that there is always a false-positive / false-negative tradeoff; The US system (and your recommendation) prefers false negatives, the EU system and other single payer systems prefer false positives. And .. what do you know? Bang for buck, single payer systems triumph greatly, have lower infant death, and higher life expectancy.