2 ms·
> EG: in a free market, if someone has a healthcare emergency, yet cannot afford to pay for the service required, the free market would say -- dump this person
by neonhomer 10y ago
> EG: in a free market, if someone has a healthcare emergency, yet cannot afford to pay for the service required, the free market would say -- dump this person in the street.
So before the EMTALA was passed in 1986 people were dying in the street?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_an...
- soundwave106 10y agoYes, in a sense. (In practice: some private hospitals refused to accept poor uninsured patients, so these patients would be shuffled around in an attempt to find a hospital that would accept them. Sometimes patients would die before a hospital was found.) http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1346189/pdf/canmedaj00260-0074.pdf http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1346189/pdf/canm... I understand one of the reasons EMTALA was passed was due to public outrage caused by reports within newspapers, 60 Minutes, etc. on patient dumping. From what I can Google, there are still patient dumping cases raised, even though the EMTALA exists. (12 settlements in 2013 for instance: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues/12-hospital-settlements-involving-patient-dumping-in-2013.html http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/legal-regulatory-issues...)