Nothing paints a more stark picture of our nation’s dysfunctional health care system than the stories of everyday Americans and the bills they receive following medical treatment.

In a recent case in Atlanta, Georgia, a woman named Taylor Davis went to her local ER for a head injury only to wait several hours to be seen by a doctor. She finally threw in the towel and left, but that didn’t stop Emory Decatur Hospital from sending her a bill for $700 anyway. 

“I sat there for seven hours. There’s no way I should be sitting in an emergency room … for seven hours,” Davis told FOX-5 Atlanta. 

“I didn’t get my vitals taken, nobody called my name. I wasn’t seen at all,” Davis says.

Convinced the hospital made a mistake, Davis reached out. She was told emergency room visits charge a facility fee or ER room visit fee. “You get charged before you are seen. Not for being seen,” read an email sent to Davis from an Emory Healthcare patient financial services employee. 

“I’m very reluctant to go to the hospital now. That’s kind of like the last resort now. Seeing that they’re able to bill you for random things, it doesn’t make me want to go. So that’s not good,” Davis said.

Emory Healthcare sent a response to FOX-5:

“Emory Healthcare takes all patient concerns seriously and appreciates this has been brought to our attention. Our teams are currently looking into this matter and will follow up directly with the individual.”

While Emory is “looking into” the matter, another American, Kristen R. Moore, tweeted about her experience of having a miscarriage and then having to pay over $1,000 out of pocket. 

Moore’s Twitter thread finds one commenter tweeting that she paid nearly $14,000 for her miscarriage. Follow the thread below: 

The examples of these two women don’t even account for the 30 million Americans who don’t have health insurance or are underinsured. 

“Tens of thousands of Americans will die this year for lack of health coverage and the U.S. ranks last out of 16 industrialized countries for deaths that could be prevented with proper medical care,” according to Public Citizen. 

“Medical bills contribute to more than 60 percent of all bankruptcies. Three-fourths of those bankrupt had health insurance at the time they got sick. While the Affordable Care Act reduced the accumulation of medical debt, it has not ended medical bankruptcy.”

Despite a worldwide pandemic and the death of nearly 750,000 people due to COVID-19 in the U.S. alone, the level of health and wellness in this nation has not changed. It’s as sick as it ever was, and the only answer is a single-payer system. 

“Switching to a single-payer system could save nearly $600 billion per year by slashing overhead and negotiating lower drug costs. Savings are enough to cover everyone and eliminate cost-sharing in health care,” a report from Public Citizen reads. 

The battle for a bill that would equally cover all Americans with health insurance is ongoing. The Medicare for All Act would expand and improve coverage; eliminate out-of-pocket costs; add dental, vision, and reproductive care; and add long-term support for elderly and disabled people. 

In March, Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Debbie Dingle introduced the legislation. 

“There is a solution to this health crisis — a popular one that guarantees health care to every person as a human right and finally puts people over profits and care over corporations. That solution is Medicare for All — everyone in, nobody out,” Jayapal wrote. 

“A system that prioritizes profits over patients and ties coverage to employment was no match for a global pandemic and will never meet the needs of our people,” Dingell wrote. 

“In the wealthiest nation on earth, patients should not be launching GoFundMe pages to afford lifesaving health care for themselves or their loved ones. Medicare For All will build an inclusive health care system that won’t just open the door to care for millions of our neighbors but do it more efficiently and effectively than the one we have today. Now is not the time to shy away from these generational fights, it is the time for action.”

The Medicare for All Act of 2021 is also endorsed by 300 local, state, and national organizations that represent nurses, doctors, business owners, unions, and racial justice organizations. This includes Physicians for a National Health Program, Public Citizen, National Nurses United, Center for Popular Democracy, People’s Action, Social Security Works, Labor Campaign for Single Payer, SEIU, and hundreds more, yet the legislation and the health of Americans languish.