BBCWatcher
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In the United States? Yes. The health insurance companies pay the providers directly, or at least that's thoroughly common. "Do you have insurance? Which plan?" are two very common, upfront questions in U.S. medical care.Is my assumption that insurance payouts, say health payouts, are protected from creditors for bankrupt individuals? It will be a disaster if a bankrupt falls sick and cannot pay his hospital bills.
Medical crises still cause lots of personal bankruptcies in the United States, but it's less bad than in the recent past since the percentage of the population that's uninsured has declined substantially (thanks to "Obamacare").
The situation is a little odd in Singapore (also). The medical insurance here operates much more frequently on a reimbursement basis. But how do you come up with the cash to pay for medical care (for later partial or full reimbursement) if you're bankrupt? In practice, you probably don't, so if you're bankrupt it's quite likely you'll be obtaining your care from public medical providers offering the best subsidies, notably C ward in public hospitals. Then, you'd use MediSave dollars (which are shielded from creditors and court judgments) and perhaps even Medifund to plug gaps. So an Integrated Shield plan designed to cover private hospital care may not really be "operable" if/when you're cash strapped.
It's even tougher if you're a bankrupt or otherwise cash strapped non-citizen in need of medical care in Singapore, although you should be in pretty good shape if you've got a baseline Integrated Shield plan (e.g. Aviva's MyShield Plan 3) and/or some decent or better employer-provided coverage.
It's not fun to be bankrupt or cash strapped, basically.