4 ms·
The problem is that we mandate that hospitals treat the indigent. Without a mandate for everyone to carry insurance, we have one industry footing the bill for
by jnwatson 10y ago
The problem is that we mandate that hospitals treat the indigent.
Without a mandate for everyone to carry insurance, we have one industry footing the bill for what should really be paid by the government.
Instead, the indigent have insurance (in theory), and they can get healthcare other than at the emergency room, hopefully at lower cost.
The alternative is to end the mandate for hospitals to treat everyone.
- bbatha 10y agoOr have a public option...
- gnaritas 10y agoA public option is just a mandate by another name, it has to be paid for by higher taxes: still a mandate. But yes, we should do it that way.
- importantbrian 10y agoYes, taxes would go up, but would most people really notice? You are basically shifting from paying a premium to a private insurer to paying a tax to the government. It's kinda six one half dozen the other.
- gdubs 10y agoThank joe Lieberman (a democrat) for why we don't.
- bbatha 10y agoLieberman was an independent, though he caucused with the democrats.
- jansanchez 10y agoYes, but not always. He opposed the government option. Quoting the article [0]: > ... "if the bill remains what it is now, I will not be able to support a cloture motion before final passage." In other words, Lieberman will support a filibuster. "I can't see a way in which I could vote for cloture on any bill that contained a creation of a government-operated-run insurance company," Lieberman said. [0] http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescriptions/2009/10/did_lieberman_just_kill_the_public_option.html http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/prescription...
- Animats 10y agoThat was one of the arguments for the ACA. Hospital emergency rooms are a very expensive way to treat minor problems, and an very ineffective way to treat chronic ones. This is why each homeless person in SF costs the medical system about $10K a year. Prior to 1986, hospitals were not required to treat the uninsured, but most nonprofit hospitals did anyway.[1] For-profit hospitals tried to dump them on nonprofit and charity institutions. The 1986 law makes all hospitals that take any Federal funding treat uninsured people with emergency conditions. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_and_Active_Labor_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Medical_Treatment_an...