HOSPITALS. ARE. ALREADY. REQUIRED. UNDER. LAW. TO. PROVIDE. LIFE. SAVING. EMERGENCY. CARE. REGARDLESS. OF. ABILITY. TO. PAY. OR. EVEN. CITIZENSHIP.
Stop acting like Americans have no access to emergency healthcare unless we socialize medicine.
IF. YOU. GO. AND. CAN’T. PAY. YOU’RE. STILL. THOUSANDS. IN. DEBT. THIS. IS. NOT. ACCESS.
This hospital in my city just threw out a homeless man
The hospital which took me in after I collapsed from the fist sized tumor over my heart, released me after refusing to diagnose it as cancer, which would have forced them to give me some kind of treatment. The doctor at the county hospital which took me in looked at their tests and said, “this is CLEARLY cancer, why didn’t they diagnose it? We can’t let you leave.”
Hospitals find ways when they want to, to avoid helping people when they want to.
“Oh that’s illegal, you should sue” “ with what money and how will I get the time and energy when I’m busy recovering from chemo?”
People who can’t afford treatment also can’t afford to protect their rights.
Absolutely this: “People who can’t afford treatment also can’t afford to protect their rights.”
All, this, but also: having the ER be people’s only point of access is horribly financially irresponsible. It means that people have to go to the ER for every problem if it’s the only place that won’t turn them away, so they go there for an ear infection or a sprained ankle and rack up a bill that’s ten times higher than if they’d been able to go to an urgent care clinic or a regular doctor’s office.
That’s a huge waste of money and resources. And when people can’t pay that giant bill, it drives up everyone’s healthcare costs. Even if you don’t care about human beings at all, you should still care about this completely irrational situation where we’re losing large amounts of money because we refuse to offer people more affordable access to care.
Also, there are things the ER simply can’t do (or does very poorly and expensively), including:
- Preventative care like vaccinations, cancer screening, or prenatal care.
- Rehabilitative care like PT after an injury.
- Long-term care for people who aren’t able to take care of their own daily needs.
- Care for any chronic condition that isn’t a crisis at this moment.
