These are very good points. Our health insurance deductible (and max out of pocket amount) through the ACA (Affordable Care Act aka. Obamacare) is $6900 for each family member. Families like ours have been conditioned to avoid "unnecessary" doctor visits and testing. If our government wants people to get tested, they're going to have to make it "free", etc.
Unfortunately there is a lot of wrong information, assumption and other discussed. Allow me to tell you what authorities are saying here in Europe.
In Europe the recommendation is actually to
NOT go to a doctor if you assume you may have got the corona Virus. This is from officials, authorities and Doctors and makes a lot of sense even if it sounds odd at start.
The point is as in most cases the development is mild anyway and does not need hospitalization and therefore its much better to
isolated at home. Thats what happening here in Germany and in many other countries for good reasons. From the 63 cases or so we have in Germany I believe 2 are critical and in a hospital, so all the chatter about 15 - 20% hospitalization some people talk about seems to be not really true.
If you go to a doctor you will be in contact with many other people and the risk that you infect them is pretty hight. That happened in the last weeks where infections have not been known off like in Italy and why most of the German cases can be tracked back to Italy.
You
stay at home and call the doctor who will give you instructions. Within a family household there are different ways how the rest of the family can be isolated from the infected person.
The next wrong information circulating is masks.
Only if you have the virus you should use and buy a mask.
If not don't buy one! Why? Well, guess where the masks for the world are produced? In China! An of course they have a supply issue right now and can't deliver. The mask you buy hinders someone in the world that may have the virus to get one. So, you make the infection worse and you don't help yourself neither.
Also and more important your risk to get infected as someone who is not near an infection point is that low that is does not make any sense to wear a mask. Finally the problem if you don't have the virus is not to be infected by your breathing or mouth but because people don't wash there hands often and long enough (min 20sec). People usually catch it with their hands and when they touch their face next the virus is near your mouth or nose and can enter.
There is more but this are some of the myths.
