Im amazed there is even a discussion about it, sadly when i was in texas for a few years i saw seveal people who were outside the health insurance world, suffer and yes indeed die, the trouble with u.s. thinking is always based around the dollar and how much the individual can make at the expense of those less well off. it is the ultimate them and us world, the haves have loads and the havenots really do struggle, but its the american dream crap, yes we would all like to have loadsa money or even enough to get by on with out worry, sadly there is a real world out there, free health care for all is a wonderfull idea, when a friend of mine was here from the states and he was involved in an accident, the ambulance arrived in ten minutes , he was is accident and emergency in twenty five minutes, his broken leg was in a cast after xrays etc within an hour and a half, cost, nothing , nought , nada, had it happened stateside , well your guess is as good as mine, im not saying the national health service is perfect, its not, but hell its better than in some places. oh and as an aside he got a bill from the nhs, compared it with stateside and it was less than one sixteenth of what he would have paid. his travel insurance of course covered it.
had he not been a visitor he would have paid nothing.