I go to a clinic in a hispanic area. Everyone is Spanish first except my doctor. That's why they give him to me. He seems competent. My nurse aide who weighed me and took my blood was definitely have to think before speaking English.
I do not want to name them because I do not want to throw them under the bus but since I did not have insurance they gave me a sizable discount. Now I love them but it's not imperative that they do this. In fact at first I did mumble "I'm good". But when my doctor pressed on I kept quiet. He discounted my final cost for all work about 25%. When the aides started to do the work they made sure I knew the price and could pay it. So they have been trained to think a person with no insurance must be indigent. This despite all evidence to the contrary, my obesity, my clothes, my medicine scripts.
But this makes me nervous when I think about it. It means that the price I got would be paid in full, without question by any insurance company. Insurance raises the prices. And full social medicine will be even more expensive. It is not only more expensive per visit, with more tests taken just because someone else is paying for it. To the user it looks free so they will be using it more. This may help the health of some people but some will get no benefit at all. Others might actually be harmed.
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