A reasonable person knowing that they would die without treatment would surely take the enormous debt.
But the problem is that "feeling some pain in your chest" is a long way from knowing that death is certain. And if your habit is to avoid going to the doctor because you know the bills could ruin your life, then your default will be "I'm fine!" As the OP made clear, getting to the hospital quickly can be the difference between life and death.
"A reasonable person knowing that they would die without treatment would surely take the enormous debt."
Single guy detected. Nothing wrong with that, just saying. Its a balance, lifelong economic death penalty for the three of them, vs they get to hang around with me for a couple decades... in the homeless shelter.
And that's assuming treatment means a cure. Most of the time, especially when the Drs are "mystified", all treatment means is the survivors are much poorer.
Currently I have great insurance, although that'll end soon enough, making these kind of balance decisions interesting in the future.
> A reasonable person knowing that they would die without treatment would surely take the enormous debt.
If there's nobody depending on you? Yes, you're right.
But suppose your family is depending on you. If you die, they get a decent life insurance payment. If you live but rack up crippling debt, maybe they lose the house and the cars and now nobody can pay for the kids' education.
But the problem is that "feeling some pain in your chest" is a long way from knowing that death is certain. And if your habit is to avoid going to the doctor because you know the bills could ruin your life, then your default will be "I'm fine!" As the OP made clear, getting to the hospital quickly can be the difference between life and death.
I just did a quick Google search, and a reasonable estimate puts the number of deaths from not having insurance in the same ballpark as gun deaths or car deaths: http://www.pnhp.org/news/2008/january/make_that_22000_uni.ph...