ERs only have to stabilize the patient, not treat.

I've seen people turned away, and I don't spend much time in ERs.

There is this idea that the health care crisis isn't really all that bad because worst-case, you just abuse the ER. That doesn't work. Maybe ERs used to do the non-ER stuff, maybe some still do, but some just plain won't. You come in for stitches, that's an emergency, they do it. Getting them removed, that's not, they might not. Bring in a kid with a bug, they will definitely assess, but if the kid isn't in immediate danger, they might not do anything else.

You can, and people often do, die of treatable stuff because you couldn't afford treatment.

And then, for those of us with any ambition and sense of responsibility at all (I'm talking "able to hold a job" level not heroic) there is the financial damage. Because unless you are a complete loser, you WILL pay. Probably not in a time-frame that makes the ER profitable, and very possibly you will end up paying for the rest of your life and the hospital loses big when you die. Bankruptcy might get you past some of it, but if you've got something chronic, yer screwed.