If a homeless person loses his leg in a accident in the USA, will the hospital reattach it for free?

Question

If a homeless person loses his leg in a accident in the USA, will the hospital reattach it for free?

Answer 1

No. They do have indigent funding in some hospitals though. But, leg attachment is not like stitches...it requires experts and hospital stay, which is expensive.

Answer 2

Depends if it was a viable choice or not.

Answer 3

no insurance = no treatment ... unless you're an illegal ...

Answer 4

People can have legs re-attached? I see so many peoople without limbs I didn't I never thought about the idea of legs being re-attached. I know there is a very expensive VA hospital being built just for the so many people with limb problems coming back from iraq & you might have to call a place like the for this question....what I know about health insurance is that some really poor people are actually better covered than people that have a little bit. Example: If a person worked in construction making $20 an hour & bought a house but now has lost their job & the only job they can find is a $7.50 an hour job at McDonld's w/no insurance they could be walking to work one day & get hit by a hit & run driver & lose their leg. They will got to the hospital & not be able to get medicaid because they own a house & have a car even thought they can no longer afford to insure it or put gas in it or make house payments. The hospital will either let the bill go after finding out they can't afford it but the person will still have doctors wanting money. He can tell the doctors he doesn't have it & they can either sue him for the equity of his house or let it go. So the rich have gotten richer in this country & the middle class are going to end up paying for Paris Hilton to sit in a lounge chair & read magazines...So I would assume the hospital would do the emergency work but not anything extra for a homeless person. I worked in a hospital emergency room & sometimes people would come in just so they could get a free place to stay for a while. So even if they were sick they would end up discharged quick & they didn't send them to a shelter or anything just out of the hospital.

Answer 5

If he's an illegal, yes. If he fills out papers that show he's a citizen - questionable.

To play safe, he should probably cry out that his name is "Pepe'," even though he'd probably be in a lot of pain from the accident.

Answer 6

The hospital will reattach the leg and then bill the patient. There's no penalty for not paying a hospital bill, though, except a mark on his credit report. The homeless person might also qualify for government care for low income individuals.

There are also a number of charitable organizations that provide free medical services to low-income people.

Answer 7

no, they would be lucky just to get treated. nothing is free in the USA