Of course you can, it's called paying for it yourself. And actually that's how most Americans paid for their health care (such as it was) for most of our nation's history. Of course today most Americans have grown up in an environment where all of their health care financing has been funneled through a third party such as a health insurance company or a government program and have been disconnected from the concept of directly paying for health care services. Many would argue this is one of the underlying causes of the problems our nation is experiencing with health care costs today.
Your doctor would be thrilled to be paid in cash, check or credit card for your office visit and not have to file a claim with an insurance carrier or government agency. In fact, you might find out you would get a discounted charge for paying in cash. An example of this is the growing "concierge medical practice" movement where people prepay their physician a fee for access to the doctor's services. You get your phone calls returned promptly and when you go in to see your doctor he actually spends more than 5 to 10-minutes with you. What a revolutionary idea!
The hospital can't turn you away when you have an emergency and must deliver care. However, this doesn't relieve you of the financial responsibility for the services you receive and they will bill you and pursue payment.
This is obviously the area where the greatest concern for individual health financial risk management comes up. Unless you are very wealthy, self-financing several years of cancer treatment or paying for a heart transplant is out of the question for most people. Even managing a chronic health problem like diabetes, COPD, or psoriatic arthritis can have the person using medications costing hundreds or thousands of dollars per month.
So, yes, you can still get medical treatment without health insurance and for many routine health care needs self-financing would probably be more cost effective. However, for the high risk and chronic health conditions a person may be faced with insurance is really a necessity.
.JPG){kind=avatar}
Your doctor would be thrilled to be paid in cash, check or credit card for your office visit and not have to file a claim with an insurance carrier or government agency. In fact, you might find out you would get a discounted charge for paying in cash. An example of this is the growing "concierge medical practice" movement where people prepay their physician a fee for access to the doctor's services. You get your phone calls returned promptly and when you go in to see your doctor he actually spends more than 5 to 10-minutes with you. What a revolutionary idea!
The hospital can't turn you away when you have an emergency and must deliver care. However, this doesn't relieve you of the financial responsibility for the services you receive and they will bill you and pursue payment.
This is obviously the area where the greatest concern for individual health financial risk management comes up. Unless you are very wealthy, self-financing several years of cancer treatment or paying for a heart transplant is out of the question for most people. Even managing a chronic health problem like diabetes, COPD, or psoriatic arthritis can have the person using medications costing hundreds or thousands of dollars per month.
So, yes, you can still get medical treatment without health insurance and for many routine health care needs self-financing would probably be more cost effective. However, for the high risk and chronic health conditions a person may be faced with insurance is really a necessity.