No money, you get care and they sue you or whatever. You get the care.
EDIT:
2/3 of all hospitals in the US are public or non-profit ones. The public ones cannot deny care for any issue you may have, regardless of your ability to pay.
All hospitals and urgent care clinics must treat patients regardless of their ability to pay.
My note: for the past 10 years, my entire health care has been through the neighborhood urgent care clinic. For my lupus, I do see a specialist, but the urgent care clinics were able to prescribe the same drugs the rheumatologist did.
In my neighborhood in San Diego, there were 2 or 3 women's clinics that would treat for free.
https://insight.kellogg.northwester...the-cost-of-the-uninsured-nonprofit-hospitals
The government does provide some compensation to hospitals for treating low-income patients. Most of it is in the form of Disproportionate Share Hospital (DSH) payments, which, according to federal law, are owed to any qualified hospital that serves a large number of Medicaid and uninsured patients. But the research shows it is not enough to offset hospital costs. “The DSH payments are less than the uncompensated care that’s provided,” explains Garthwaite.
Nor does the cost fall on those who hold private insurance policies, as many policymakers assume. “There’s this idea that hospitals simply pass on the costs of uncompensated care to privately insured patients by raising prices,” Garthwaite says—a phenomenon known as “cost-shifting,” which some have also interpreted as a “hidden tax” on all Americans.
“We show evidence that it’s not true. If it were true, we wouldn’t see profits fall—but we see profits fall meaningfully following an increase in the share of the population that is uninsured.” Beyond the empirical evidence, though, Garthwaite says it is not clear that hospitals could shift costs in the way many policymakers assume they do. “Hospitals are sophisticated financial organizations,” he says. “If raising prices would have made them more money, they would have already raised prices.”
Ultimately, hospitals are left to absorb at least two-thirds of the cost of all of this uncompensated care, the researchers estimate.
Burden on Nonprofits
Interestingly, nonprofit hospitals end up absorbing the bulk of this care. A majority of private hospitals in the United States—more than 70 percent—are nonprofit firms and therefore expected to provide a “community benefit” in exchange for tax relief. One key component of this community benefit is charity care for indigent patients. For-profit firms do not face a similar community-benefit standard.
This means that when there are changes in the supply or demand of healthcare services to the poor, most of the burden—in terms of uncompensated care costs—falls on nonprofit hospitals, a finding that sheds new light on the role nonprofits play in the healthcare industry. In contrast to what many believe, nonprofit hospitals are not simply for-profits in disguise. “Previously, it wasn’t clear exactly what kind of role nonprofit hospitals were playing,” he says. “Th