Hospitals are obligated to provide care that will immediately save your life. They are not obligated - and won't - provide care to sustain your life.
Suppose you have cancer. An operation costs $100,000. If you get it within six weeks, you live, otherwise, it metastasizes and you die. If you haven't got the $100K in the U.S., they won't operate, and are under no obligation to do so. It's not an emergent condition.
Now, 16 weeks later when you're dying, they'll put you in a hospital bed, give you oxygen and morphine, and try to ease you into death - regardless of your ability to pay (though they'll try to get paid from your assets and your family, of course). But that "guaranteed" care is perhaps not as comforting as getting the operation and staying alive would have been.
Suppose you have cancer. An operation costs $100,000. If you get it within six weeks, you live, otherwise, it metastasizes and you die. If you haven't got the $100K in the U.S., they won't operate, and are under no obligation to do so. It's not an emergent condition.
Now, 16 weeks later when you're dying, they'll put you in a hospital bed, give you oxygen and morphine, and try to ease you into death - regardless of your ability to pay (though they'll try to get paid from your assets and your family, of course). But that "guaranteed" care is perhaps not as comforting as getting the operation and staying alive would have been.