How do communities tackle problems arising from medical insurance or lack thereof?

I don't think medical language is such a great barrier. They follow a simple formula using two well documented dead languages. In our age of open information it is easy to research anything you are told. Doing so is good sense and can easily be life saving.

I'm also going to point out that my mother went through a period where her hands hurt so much that she couldn't pick things up. The doctor did not diagnose her with arthritis. In fact, he couldn't find any diagnosis that fit. She hunted down both the cause and the treatment herself.

I also hunted down an effective treatment for myself that far surpassed the antibiotic cream I was offered at the same office after a pot of boiling water poured down my front. My treatment was antibiotic, anti inflammatory, and got rid of the pain. The doctor's suggestion would have left me in pain and not done as much to speed healing.

Doctors may be invested in using the industrial medicine they mortgage their youth to learn. I don't think they are purposely trying to make good health care indecipherable as some method of controlling easily intimidated patients. Their very technical terms for problems allows them to have precision in their diagnosis. An accurate diagnosis usually gives me enough information to find a healthy alternative treatment.

Good food, exercise, water, and proper sleep will take care of most things.

But every once in a while someone breaks a finger. (Or gets an infection that won't go away, sorry berberine)

I've been contemplating this question, and (as a US citizen who does NOT have health insurance - currently illegal) have had to visit the doctor a couple times in the two years since my care was dropped. In the US there are many urgent care clinics popping up. I can usually see a doctor for $100-$150, and medications (like steriods for a serious case of poison ivy) cost between $4-$27. I make about half the federal poverty line. I do not use entitlements, and make sure I have an emergency fund to cover events like these.

However, creating a basic safety net would be nice. I recently took a regenerative livelihood course through Gaia "U", and one of their more interesting systems was "Income Solidarity." It established a baseline income, and, depending on your monthly income above or below the line, at a percentage of your choosing (you can choose to be "IN" for a lot (10%+) or just try it out (1%)) you either contribute to the general fund or draw from it. Eventually over a decade they had a running surplus, which members could drawn out an interest-free loan in the event of major crisis or opportunity.

This could be a great system for community supported health care. There are many variables - trust between members being a huge one - and it would take time to establish. There is big potential here.

Tyler Ludens wrote:

Joseph Lofthouse wrote:Just because we have pharmaceuticals to allegedly treat symptoms of thyroid disorders, or diabetes, or high blood pressure, or whatever,  doesn't meant that we should be using them.

So, I'm wondering, what is the community answer to these problems?  Just let us die?

From my many studies in economics, I am thoroughly convinced that the very existence of the insurance industry is what happens when we all stop caring for one another. The insurance industry functions to drive up prices on medical care. If the insurance industry (which I call the paying-for-air industry) didn't exist, prices would fall because those providing such care would have to compete directly for customer dollars rather than for the dollars of an insurance company--which often refuses to pay anyway.