Several years ago my husband was out of work, but we had to many assets to qualify for any kind of free health care for him and I. The kids were on medi-cal. Then he got a new, very low paying job, and the insurance was astronomical for what he was making, it was seriously half of his paycheck to cover the kids and I. His job covered him, but I had to go without. Twice during that time period I hurt myself enough to need a doctor, once a twisted ankle, once I hurt my hand and thought it was broken. I found a local clinic that had a sliding scale. It was in a not so great part of town, and they treated me horribly. It was the first time I had been without insurance, and my excellent doctor. They ran terribly late, and were curt and rude and acted like I was just there to get pain meds. I had to go to a different location for an xray and I was 10 minutes late because I got lost and they cancelled my appointment and made me reschedule all while berating me for getting lost. I cried. I probably needed a specialist, but didn't want to go through them, so I just delt with the pain. I was so lucky that there were no lasting issues with the hand injury. But my view of health care was changed by that whole issue.