Steerpike

Wasn't there supposed to some sort of 'plan B' for the loss of the mandate? Or has that opportunity passed?

First of all, great news that you were able to take care of your issue (whatever it was!).

What if the issue was serious enough that you had to go wherever the ambulance took you - would rolling the dice still have paid off?

And what exactly is a 'county hospital'? Sorry if I sound naive but I don't think I've ever seen a big sign on a hospital anywhere that says 'county hospital'. If I'm writhing on the floor in agony and wanting to be taken to such a place, what the heck do I ask for?! I've never spent a night in hospital so I just don't know these things!

Bob

Depends on your location, not every town has one...In a case of an emergency, the ambulance would take you to the nearest hospital, they would stabilise you and then transfer you to the county run hospital if you don't have insurance.

Where I used to live, there was one in town, it wasn't very good though...now where I live, I think there's one in a neighbouring town but it's rubbish too and you're more likely if something is bad enough to get transferred to Worcester or Boston. Even though there are other county run hospitals in other towns, they are pretty limited in what they treat in comparison to whats offered in those two cities.

Michael

I believe California has gotten away from the concept of county hospitals as a whole but instead subsidize private hospitals. A large number of hospitals in California were built with funding by the county and local governments by the sale of bonds and I believe many hospitals get reimbursed, at least partially, by local governments for medical defaults.

Steerpike

Doing some research here ... There is a hospital in Martinez that may fit the bill; this is how they describe themselves: "With the opening of the Contra Costa Regional Medical Center the people of Contra Costa gained a valuable new community resource: a modern state-of-the-art public hospital dedicated to serving the health care needs of all county residents. "

http://cchealth.org/medical_center/

So it calls itself a 'public' hospital, not a county hospital, but the concept seems the same?

scrubbedexpat099

I know we no longer have a County Hospital, we have no Hospital's in the County.

There are not for profit community Hospital's, none near me. I will have to ask around.

Michael

I think you are right. There are a few of them around such as the San Francisco General Hospital that fit that category. However back about 50 years ago, there were a lot of them around until big business convinced local governments that they could do a better job.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Fra...neral_Hospital