Can You Get Medical Treatment Without Health Insurance? 
Of course you can , it 's called paying for it yourself . And actually that 's how most Americans paid for their health care -LRB- such as it was -RRB- for most of our nation 's history . Of course today most Americans have grown up in an environment where all of their health care financing has been funneled through a third party such as a health insurance company or a government program and have been disconnected from the concept of directly paying for health care services . Many would argue this is one of the underlying causes of the problems our nation is experiencing with health care costs today . Your doctor would be thrilled to be paid in cash , check or credit card for your office visit and not have to file a claim with an insurance carrier or government agency . In fact , you might find out you would get a discounted charge for paying in cash . An example of this is the growing `` concierge medical practice '' movement where people prepay their physician a fee for access to the doctor 's services . You get your phone calls returned promptly and when you go in to see your doctor he actually spends more than 5 to 10-minutes with you . What a revolutionary idea ! The hospital ca n't turn you away when you have an emergency and must deliver care . However , this does n't relieve you of the financial responsibility for the services you receive and they will bill you and pursue payment . This is obviously the area where the greatest concern for individual health financial risk management comes up . Unless you are very wealthy , self-financing several years of cancer treatment or paying for a heart transplant is out of the question for most people . Even managing a chronic health problem like diabetes , COPD , or psoriatic arthritis can have the person using medications costing hundreds or thousands of dollars per month . So , yes , you can still get medical treatment without health insurance and for many routine health care needs self-financing would probably be more cost effective . However , for the high risk and chronic health conditions a person may be faced with insurance is really a necessity . 