The obvious consequence would be that people go to the emergency room for any kind of healthcare. That’s a much worse outcome for hospitals so I doubt they would deny people primary care.
The $400 Tylenol people love to complain about in the hospital is a direct result of the government mandate to treat thousands of patients a day effectively for free because we can't get our shit together and provide universal healthcare.
So they aren’t going to deny people primary care because doing so will just cause them to wind up in the ER.
It is already a big enough problem they don't seem to care. Hospitals in less affluent areas are getting interest free loans from the state to keep emergency care from bankrupting them: https://calmatters.org/health/2023/08/california-hospitals-b...
> So they aren’t going to deny people primary care because doing so will just cause them to wind up in the ER.
You seem to be confused that I am speaking to some hypothetical future situation. Hospital networks require you to either pay outstanding balances or meet with someone to arrange a payment plan before you can be seen. Taking away the ability to report to credit is only going to make them more aggressive in this practice.
“ Hospital networks require you to either pay outstanding balances or meet with someone to arrange a payment plan before you can be seen.”
Putting them on a payment plan is not the same thing as forcing them to pay. I believe they would force payment for elective care, not preventative.
I wonder if there are sensible reasons to not have a single point of contact for unscheduled care, or if it is just dumb inertia?
I know there are some hospitals that have provided urgent care type services at urgent care type prices in their emergency rooms, I haven't looked to see if it worked well or if they are still doing it.