what about the poor people? the ones that can't really afford insurance. i've heard multiple times that epipen prices are crazy expensive and that's a really basic drug.
If you’re really poor, you can get Medicaid. It’s the working poor who earn too much for Medicaid who are really shafted. The ACA tried to fix that for as many as it could, by expanding Medicaid to households making more money; the Republicans shut down the government to fight that expansion. It’s maddening.
Gov shutdown wasn’t about medicaid expansion, which is done at the state level. It was about expanding ACA subsidies to those making more than 400% of the federal poverty level.
If you're poor you just wait until you're borderline dying and then go to the E.R. and get charged $120,000 and then never pay it and then have debt collectors calling you for the rest of your life.
Or you're on Medicaid if you live in a sane state.
I guess it depends on how you define “poor” and “uninsured”. Considering most of America offers Medicaid expansion or ACA plans, being uninsured is basically a choice.
There's undoubtedly a significantly lower cash price if you don't have insurance (GP mentions $225). The before insurance prices are meaningless; they're a negotiating tactic between pharma companies and insurers.
