One common and costly occurrence among most people nowadays is living without health insurance. It simply means forgetting the importance of having a health insurance plan but would rather pay heavily when paying a visit to the emergency room.
If you have been in this situation before then, you must have heard about urgent care clinics which are a separate and better alternative to visiting emergency rooms if you don’t have a life-threatening condition. This post talks more about low-cost urgent care no insurance.
Urgent care clinics have no relationship whatsoever with hospitals, but anything that requires long-term treatment or a serious health condition should be handled in the emergency room. You do not need an appointment before visiting an urgent care center today, but urgent care clinics do not stay open for a whole day, unlike emergency rooms in hospitals.
Almost everybody asks if they can go to urgent care clinics without having health insurance coverage. The answer to this question is YES. These clinics accept patients who do not have health insurance coverage, but patients would also need to make some payments for the service rendered to them at that time.
An advantage of visiting an urgent care clinic is that it is very affordable compared to paying a visit to an emergency room. People also ask if urgent care clinics are capable of rejecting or turning patients away. Well, the answer to that question is YES as well.
There is also a possibility that they would turn back patients who do not have money to pay, and this proves to be the financial difference between urgent care clinics and a visit to the emergency room. This is, however, something that needs to be carefully considered when you are seeking medical help or attention. In the case of hospital emergency rooms, they are mandated by the EMTALA law.
This law mandates hospitals to accept any patient that needs to be taken to the emergency room, whether or not the person can pay or not or whether the person has health insurance coverage.
HOWEVER, the EMTALA law doesn’t apply to urgent care centers, and this is also because they have the legal rights to send back patients who do not have any money to pay upfront for services. Whether you get medical care, you would be billed, but an emergency room is always higher.
Cost Of Urgent Care Without Health Insurance
You might be wondering what it would cost someone to visit an urgent care clinic without having health insurance coverage. The amount differs from one clinic to the other. Still, the estimated cost for a visit to an urgent care clinic is between seventy-five dollars to one hundred and twenty-five dollars, and it doesn’t go above one hundred dollars most of the time.
The cost for treating bronchitis at urgent care centers costs about one hundred and thirty dollars, while emergency rooms cost about six hundred dollars on average. Mind you, all of the prices that we have listed above are prices without a health insurance policy.
There is also free urgent care in some clinics, and several municipalities and clinics offer free urgent care to patients. A good number of private clinics also offer free urgent care, but this is done on a limited basis to patients who are uninsured and patients with proven financial needs. If it isn’t free, then some of their services would be reduced based on the patient’s income.
Conclusion
If you are still bothered about what it would cost you to visit an urgent care clinic without insurance, then the best option is to find a suitable coverage plan that comes with lots of benefits to ensure that you stay protected.
Plans with high coverage might actually be affordable than you can ever imagine, and it would also help you save up some money. At the same time, it would provide you with access to emergency rooms and access to urgent care clinics at a discounted rate.
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