And that cost is often passed on to patients, either in the form of deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses or through ever-soaring insurance premiums.

The Affordable Care Act has improved access to health care, especially for lower-income families that now qualify for Medicaid or subsidies to buy private health insurance. Wider access, however, has not come cheaply for most people. As a result, many Americans, including those who are insured, have determined that they must avoid going to the hospital, visiting doctors or filling prescriptions that they need. A 2017 Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that 43 percent of people with insurance said that they struggled affording their deductibles, and 27 percent said that they put off getting care because of cost. Turning to GoFundMe and other crowdsourcing websites has become the norm in medical crises.

Whether the woman on the train platform received the medical attention she needed is unknown. Ms. Cramer said on Monday that she had not been able to get an update on the woman’s condition yet. Ms. Cramer went on to tweet that after several minutes had passed, an ambulance still had not arrived. Instead, fellow passengers tried to help. “One man stood behind her so she could lean against him,” she wrote. “Another pressed cold water bottles to her leg.”

Health care is a complicated problem, one exacerbated by the gridlock in Washington. But the trade-offs that everyday people are being asked to make, the calculations they are being forced to undertake in the scariest of situations, suggest that far too many of America’s politicians have placed too little value on the well-being of its citizens. Nothing will change until their fellow citizens step into the ballot box and insist on something better.

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