Tea Party would repeal EMTALA

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This article may or may not be current but I did hear within the last 24 hours of a Georgia lawmaker who supports the repeal of EMTALA, the Reagan initiated law requiring that Emergency Rooms must treat all patients that walk through the doors. Well, treat, or at least evaluate, and not just allow to die on the floor like a deer hit by an SUV on some rural back road. And to be clear, this law does not apply, to my knowledge, to private hospitals, but rather hospitals that have received federal funding in the building process, county hospitals etc. I am sure some of the money fetishists will unveil some string of semantics which would word the specific phrasing of the law in a way which is advantageous to their ideology. My only understanding comes from orientation training when I worked in the Emergency Room of a Lutheran Healthcare Network hospital back in the early 90's. You see, the Tea Party extremist money fetish wing of the Republican Party would like nothing better than to turn the United States into a third world dictatorship, which by the way, is exactly the way the Tea Party would characterize the current administration which actually believes in helping people who are suffering instead of watching them die in the street like a version of some television reality show.

Tell me again please, how the United States is a Christian nation.

Will be eagerly awaiting the notification that this posting has been moved to politics or religion section.

Please try and look at the 'Tea Party' as misplaced anger.

There are not as many good middle-class jobs as there used to be. People feel cheated. People are not getting, for a variety of complicated and convoluted reasons beyond their control, the kind of life they expected to have.

And so, there is misplaced anger toward such groups of persons as illegal immigrants, rather than taking on the great bastions of corporate power.

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And as much better alternatives . .

Okay, one thing is direct job creation through infrastructure projects which need to be done anyway. This might only be modest job creation and for only so long, but it is a good first step in the right direction.

And then I favor removing some of the mickey mouse state and local regulations which make starting new businesses more difficult. That is, I favor a combination of both traditional liberal and traditional conservative methods of job creation. And to lay my cards on the table, yes, I generally do bat from the left side of the plate politically.

I figured it was only a matter of time till someone thought the poor had it too good with "free" visits to the ER.

[Moved from News and Current Events to PPR]

Well, it's honest. Pick whatever model you want but be honest about it and follow through on it. Ive been saying if they want to repeal PPACA then EMTALA should go with it.

We could also set up tents outside the ER where the rich could bid on the organs of the soon to die. Might also be a good place to set up a lottery kiosk. Families might need a little hope and the state could profit.

One consequence of EMTALA is that it creates a moral hazard. If a person knows that they will not be refused emergency care, what is their incentive for obtaining insurance? While a person is still legally liable for the hospital charges, many hospitals eventually “forgive” the unpaid debt with minimal repercussions for the individual.

EMTALA has predictably created a situation in which emergency care has become viewed as a right to be provided by healthcare facilities, while ignoring the fact that to do so nullifies the rights of providers. In creating this false right, EMTALA fuels the animus of certain individuals against purchasing their own health insurance.

By defying the laws of economics in the healthcare industry, it is no surprise that “cost-shifting” occurred because revenue and profit are vital to a hospital. In fact, because health is such a crucial value, it could be argued that the ability of healthcare facilities to profit from their work is essential to the maintenance of an innovative healthcare system.

Another good business plan would be a Quick-Hospice service across the street from the ER. Poor people with severe injuries will need a place to bleed out and for a small fee they could be provided a nearby bed and a supply of morphine. After some modest legal changes you could also include a Quick-Euthanasia service outside the ER. $100 for a hotshot to put you down. Maybe $50 if they use veterinary drugs. In some states they might allow a $25 hammer option.

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You know the scary thing is some people here would genuinely regard all of that as a good idea.

So the real story is "Georgia lawmaker associated with Tea Party would repeal EMTALA"? There's a thin line between hyperbole and lying, I think this may cross it.

I'd also like to say, (from personal experience) that even with EMTALA in place, you can still find yourself sitting in an Emergency Room, or a Nursing cubicle deep within the bowels of the Emergency Room for a couple hours until sombody gets around to seeing you, not treating you, and then being charged a premium of well over $200 for the complete waste of time, whereas if you go to a clinic to get treated, you will be seen within an hour, and charged slightly under $200, and have a diagnosis, and an Rx to go along with it. --So there.