"M. Malmkvist" wrote: > > Now, just yesterday I had a debate with me on one side and > my dear fiancee and my blessed mother on the other. They > both bring up USA as a bad example every time we debate the > issue of the European Union. Their prime example being that > no person in the States can recieve any sort of treatment on > a hospital if they can't show cash, credit card or insurance > papers on entry. Meaning that dying homeless people are asked > to expire elsewhere on a daily basis on American hospitals. > Now the uneducated savage [being myself] wants to know: Is > that really true?
No, it's not really true. A hospital who runs an emergency room cannot refuse patients based on ability to pay. They'll send a bill afterward. The problem, which is approching a crisis, is that there are proportionately fewer and fewer people with the ability to pay. Health insurance is usually provided by the employer, and many of the people who wind up going to emergency rooms work in jobs that don't provide health coverage. Also, without coverage, they don't have the ability to visit a doctor during normal business hours, making appointments, etc. What we get is ERs over-filled with non-emergency patients who end up neglecting to pay for the medical care they do receive. A hospital who runs an ER ends up losing money in the balance, hence many hospitals are closing their Emergeny Rooms altogether, which concentrates patients in the ones still open, losing more money, and so on, in a vicious circle. There has to be a change to this system, however there's *much* disagreement on how to go about making things better. It hasn't affected those who do have medical coverage in very great amounts yet, but unless something changes, it will. -- Matt
