Tales from the insurance crypt

I've already linked to this site which offers personal experiences of Americans abroad to counter the propaganda about "socialized medicine" in other developed countries. Now here are a few cases of how our own current system, for many people, fails to deliver:

An eight-month-old baby who almost died because his parents couldn't afford insurance (but there's a happy ending).

A woman who has insurance but still can't afford treatment.

A man who can't get insurance because he previously sought help for suicidal depression.

An injured woman afraid to take an available ambulance for fear of bankruptcy.

And if you do have insurance, do you think it will at least protect you in the event of an expensive medical disaster? Think again.