Where to go with no Med Insurance?

[DaveCal]

Where can a foreign visitor go to get medical help if they have no medical insurance? Does the county have free services? Do some doctors have reduced fees for non-insured patients? Thanks.

[Stavka100]

Where to go? Back home.

There are free clinics, but you might be better off treating yourself instead. They are underfunded, understaffed, and usually unqualified for many treatments.

If you really want to, I guess you can go, tell them you will pay, and then go back home where they won't get you. If you can pay, however, than do so. Your health is more important than money. Plus you will be getting the best medical treatment in the world, the kind you can't get for free or for money anywhere else.

[vladis]

two things would like to point out:

- from my own experience (from several years of living here) and experience of my closest friends the quality of medical care here in the US is comparable to what i was getting back in Russia (I'm talking about major city in European part of Russia, not Moscow or St. Petersburg, though). i mean it can be good, but it can be awfull as well - it all depends on particular physician. i've had experiences with amazing doctors back in Russia and just outrageous, absolutely unqualified, unprofessional, rude doctors here in the US and vice versa.

- as it might sounds very suprising it is possible to receive free medical care provided on a limited basis here in the US. not everyone is qualifed, though. there are few programs. one is the program run by US Department of Health and Human Services

http://www.hrsa.gov/osp/dfcr/obtain/CONSFAQ.HTM

there are other programs run by local authorities (city, county), but for that you have to do some research on the Internet or yellow pages to see what's available in your area.

I've also heard that Red Cross organization has their own hospitals throughout the coutnry, which can provide some limited free medical care, but not completely sure about this.

[Stavka100]

Don't misunderstand me, I think Russia has very good medicine with some of the brightest medical minds in the world. The only problem with it is that having universal health care it does not allow for much research money in the system forcing them to use outdated and inferior equipment. So while the rest of the world calls US medicine outdated, out of step, and ridiculous, the world leaders (including Yeltsin for his bypass) come to the States for their medical treatments.

[Prikol]

Originally posted by Stavka100
Where to go? Back home.

There are free clinics, but you might be better off treating yourself instead. They are underfunded, understaffed, and usually unqualified for many treatments.

If you really want to, I guess you can go, tell them you will pay, and then go back home where they won't get you. If you can pay, however, than do so. Your health is more important than money. Plus you will be getting the best medical treatment in the world, the kind you can't get for free or for money anywhere else.
Насчет best medical treatment in the world I don't agree. Some doctors, some specialities- maybe. The system that doesn't stimulate em to fix you up really hurts you because they want you to visit them for all the rest of your life so they prescribe you maintenance medicine that is working while you are taking it

[CATAHA]

Originally posted by DaveCal
Where can a foreign visitor go to get medical help if they have no medical insurance? Does the county have free services? Do some doctors have reduced fees for non-insured patients? Thanks.
Idi v lokalnyi market prekupit'sya antibiotikami skal'pilim da i tak pomelachi Spirt 97% mojit ponadobitsya dlya obezbalueshiva i vospoleniya atakje ot zarojeniya ;-) Zaryadkoi nado poutram zanimatsya ;-) da s krasnen'kova na zelenin'koe perehodit'