Quote Originally Posted by SadisticNature View Post
Your system does terribly for heart attacks, car accidents and pretty much everything else that requires a quick efficient response. Inability to take people to the fastest reachable hospital causes huge problems, no doubt explaining the fact that the US has one of the highest rates of people dying while on the way to the emergency room.
Wow. Not sure where this tidbit of information comes from, but it's terribly incorrect. Ambulances respond very quickly to accident scenes and to other emergencies. The national average response time for an ambulance is 10 minutes. It's usually even quicker than that and they do not check to see if you have insurance when they transport you. They simply take you to the NEAREST hospital and then you are stabilized. ONLY AT THAT TIME does your insurance information get checked for coverage. If your insurance company requires you to attend a different hospital, they transport you AFTER it is safe to do so.