What’s worse is, if for example you live a significant distance from your job, say over 30-40 miles, and you get severely sick or injured at work, you may be outside your coverage area. So you may have to commute back home in the throes of a heart attack if you have any expectation of your insurance covering the hospital costs.
Here’s another less life-threatening example: if you live in Western Massachusetts, you don’t have much choice of “good” local hospitals. If you want to have your baby at one of the better hospitals in and around Worcester, or the really good ones near Boston, well tough s#itski comrade. They’re outside your coverage area, so no clean modern hospital for you.
I got critically ill in my hometown. I needed a heart operation to save my life but a cardiac surgeon wasn’t on the local hospital staff. The air ambulance service ferried me to a big city hospital where the operation could be done. I didn’t have to pay for emergency care.
But if its a routine illness, you may be out of luck today.
If you live in Marin County, California and commute across the Golden Gate to San Francisco, you're leaving your coverage area.
Go to the nearest hospital, get treated for heart attack/stroke and stabilized, and get a lifeline helo flight back to your regular hospital. Your life’s worth something; money can be replaced.
That's totally false. Federal law requires that bona fide emergency treatment be covered anywhere in the U.S.A. You may be transferred after stabilized.
I live near the state line and my doctor is across the border. If I get thrown onto obamacare, I probably wont get to keep my doctor because she’ll be out of network.