Re: @Tom 38 ... @Orv
"Well, how much is being alive worth? They could let you die for free."
That *is* a fair point, but I'm not sure that it's useful economically (or morally) to have people trapped in debt for the rest of their lives because they happened to get sick or get in an accident. If they *do* manage to declare bankruptcy -- which is quite a bit harder for individuals nowadays, by the way -- then the hospital will have to get that money somewhere else. So society at large ends up paying anyway, just less efficiently.
It's also worth noting that "keep you alive" is very narrowly defined here. They can't let you bleed out, sure. But they can discharge you as soon as you're stable. If the incident was due to a chronic medical problem like asthma or diabetes, you won't get any help treating it, so the cycle will just repeat until it finally kills you.
This keeps a lot of people out of the labor force. It's easy to end up in a situation where you COULD work if you could get medication to treat your chronic illness or mental health issues, but because you're not working you can't afford the meds. Then you get told it's your own fault for not holding down a job. Catch-22.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
