KFF Health News January 24, 2025
A few years before the covid-19 pandemic, Dale Rice lost a toe to infection.
But because he was uninsured at the time, the surgery at a Reno, Nevada, hospital led to years of anguish. He said he owes the hospital more than $20,000 for the procedure and still gets calls from collection agencies.
“It can cause a lot of anxiety,” Rice said. “I can’t give you what I don’t have.”
Rice, 62, was born and has spent his life in Nevada. He said he fell through a gap in the tribal health care system because he lives 1,500 miles from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation home area in eastern Kansas, where he’s an enrolled member.
He receives primary care at...
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