system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: U.S. healthcare system today. Break it down for me please. E.g. you get hurt badly and you're uninsured, what happens next?
gpt
For starters, virtually all hospitals in the US are legally required to give you immediate medical care.

So if you get badly hurt and taken to the hospital. You will get medical care.  There's very few hospitals that can turn you away.

Payment gets a bit complicated.

There's basically three ways your medical bills will get paid.  Most people have private health insurance (through their employer) which will help pay for your medical bills.  If you're poor, there's a government-run program called Medicaid which will help pay for medical bills.  If you're a senior citizen, there's a government-run program called Medicare which will help pay for medical bills.

The "big changes" with the new health insurance laws (what people are calling Obamacare) are that, if you can afford it, you have to have health insurance.  It also set up a "marketplace" where people who are not offered health insurance by their employer can buy insurance directly.  It also changed a few laws to make it easier for people with long-term health problems to get insurance (i.e. if you have a "pre-existing condition", they can't turn you down).