US Adverts on National Healthcare

It is not true.  They have to treat you for immediate issues, after that is another issue.

Right, but they sure as heck will send you a nice big bill afterwards...

Right, but they sure as heck will send you a nice big bill afterwards...

I never said they wouldn't, but they will treat you.

I never said they wouldn't, but they will treat you.

You then added "It would be the same in the UK if you were a tourist and didn't have travel insurance". Well, yes, the NHS might bill you, but they're very unlikely to send you the kind of bill that you would get in the US for equivalent treatment. And that's the pertinent issue imo. Emergency room costs in the US are astronomic largely because the insane system of access means that for many poor folks rolling up at the emergency room when they're really sick is their only viable form of healthcare. And of course many of those folks can't pay their bills so the costs get passed on to everyone else. Great system!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/22/BUGV88SKRT1.DTL

I don't know about the bills not being similar...I went to see a doctor using my private insurance in the UK because I wanted to be seen that day (not possible at my GP's office).  For a 20 minute appointment, I received a bill for about 200 pounds.  I had to be seen last year in the US by a physician on an emergency basis.  The doctor examined me, ordered blood tests, etc.  I had to pay $250. 

I don't know about the bills not being similar...I went to see a doctor using my private insurance in the UK because I wanted to be seen that day (not possible at my GP's office).  For a 20 minute appointment, I received a bill for about 200 pounds.  I had to be seen last year in the US by a physician on an emergency basis.  The doctor examined me, ordered blood tests, etc.  I had to pay $250.  

I was referring to hospital emergency room costs. If they were anywhere near as high as the US, I very much doubt that the UK would be spending half the percentage of its GDP on healthcare that the US does.

Let's be realistic here - emergency rooms in the UK aren't chock full of indigent people using it as their only access to healthcare.

Emergency room costs in the US are astronomic largely because the insane system of access means that for many poor folks rolling up at the emergency room when they're really sick is their only viable form of healthcare. And of course many of those folks can't pay their bills so the costs get passed on to everyone else. Great system!

I've been looking into this lately...and I haven't found much evidence to back that up. Most of the articles that I could find talking about uncompensated claims revolve around two claims:
(1) ERs are closing because they're eating the costs of these claims and/or
(2) ERs and hospitals are passing that money onto insurance companies and, subsequently, consumers.
The majority of people working from #1 ultimately fall on <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2004/sep/24/local/me-hospital24">this article</a> from the LA Times (there's a long tail that includes <a href="http://www.super-solutions.com/BabyBoomersTurnGray.asp">this</a> and <a href="http://www.jpands.org/vol10no1/cosman.pdf">this</a>). Looking at the article, however, it says that a total of 28 emergency services have closed since the mid-80s (in the LA area) and it suggests that these closures were not due to overwhelming debt from the ER but rather that they weren't getting enough patients on a consistent basis (i.e. not enough business). Then, there's <a href="http://www.warriorsfortruth.com/bush-medical-plans.html">this partisan post</a> suggests that it has been the government subsidising these hospitals in order for them to remain in business. In short, hospitals aren't closing because of unpaid bills but because of 'regular' free-market conditions.
For the second point (and to finally respond directly here), there seems to be <a href="http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2009/sep/20/barack-obama/uninsured-cost-shifting-debated-experts/">good reason</a> to doubt that as significant. I'm beginning to think that insurance companies may have been promoting this argument as a way of making more money.

I'm beginning to think that insurance companies may have been promoting this argument as a way of making more money.

I doubt it. After all, this is an argument Obama is making and he's hardly a friend of health insurance companies. I have no idea whether the number quoted by Obama is accurate, but basic logic dictates that providing belated healthcare in an emergency room setting is going to cost much more than timely treatment in a doctor's office.

You also don't mention another way costs get passed on:- the uninsured who aren't indigent often get stuck with far higher charges than hospitals charge insured patients. This is because the health insurers are able to negotiate large discounts for themselves, something individuals aren't in a position to do.

Let's be realistic here - emergency rooms in the UK aren't chock full of indigent people using it as their only access to healthcare.

Well that's a bit obvious.

Another issue about billing for US hospital stays or ERs...more often than not, it's not just one bill - there's separate billing for:  the bed/stay, each doctor you saw, each type of testing you had (Xrays, lab tests, etc), specialists or technicians who processed and/or read the tests, the medicines you were administered, any specialists who treated you (anesthetists, physical therapists, etc), any kind of special equipment you had to use, and so on and so forth.  All in - it's mind boggling.

When I was a debt advice counsellor in the US, I used to have appointments with clients who would literally bring in grocery sacks full of medical bills that they could no longer face opening.  There were always multiple bills for everything they had had done, and these had been passed on and on from one collection agency to another.  The first appointment would be spent just opening all the post and sorting it into piles as to which bill was which, and who was collecting on it currently.

When I explain this to folks I know in the UK who have only ever known about and experienced the NHS, they suddenly have a greatly heightened appreciation of just what we have here.

You probably would have waited all night in a UK A&E too LOL

Waiting all night in a UK ER wouldn't bother me as much, because I wouldn't be sitting there all night worried about the bill I was going to get or how to pay for it. 

LOL Very good point LOL