re: #368 Stonemason

Hmmm, nope, no sane way, I worded that wrong. Here is what I meant with that one five word section of my post.

The Government promised ER’s that the bills of the truly indigent would be paid, by mandate of course, and then the funding dried up. Hospitals are still forced to take non-payers, and the jack up the prices to paying customers accordingly, we’ve all seen the bill for the Tylenol at $8 per pill. This higher rate is (somewhat) paid for by the insurance companies, which is then passed along to the consumer, the ones who are now paying taxes and insurance bills to cover the indigent at hospitals. That is the problem with intervention. Prior to that, did we have millions, or even hundreds of thousands, dying on the streets? No, we didn’t. They still were treated, and payment was either made or not made.

Okay, that is oversimplified, sure, but the gist is correct. I don’t want other humans to die because they didn’t get into an ER, but I do want some form of personal responsibility enforced, too many take advantage of the system, as system that is easily taken advantage of, because it was designed with altruism in mind, no facts. When something is perceived as ‘free’, people will use more of it.
Once again, there is no easy way to turn people away at the ER doors, and they shouldn’t be, but there is a better way to handle the aftermath, perhaps those that are determined to be able bodied and healthy by the same doctors that treated them could work to pay off the bills? Or, perhaps, they could take second and third jobs to pay off the birth of a child…it has been done.

I understood the crux of your point, I”m just saying that while it might be a thing you can point out as a “possible problem” there is no humane and effective solution to making sure people can pay before getting treatment at the ER.

While your solution seems reasonable on the surface there are two problems with it in my eyes.

1: Working to pay off the bills. Where would they work? At the hospital? A lot of the work that goes on in hospitals requires a lot of training before you can take care of it, and the amount that would be spent training the person would only add to the problem not to mention become more or less wasted money once they’ve paid off their debt.

2: The entire thing ends up seeming like a sort of modern day debtor’s prison/government enforced indentured servitude if we’re going to restrict people’s ability to move/force them to take a particular job due to their lack of finances.

As a possible third point those people who come into the ER often aren’t in good shape to work after their treatment. Suppose someone got shot in the chest, or in the leg, and they need help walking. As far as I know (I stand very open to being corrected) ER will patch you up and make sure you aren’t going to die, but they aren’t going to give you the kind of therapy you’d need to get fully mobile again.

In short to my eyes the ER rooms can’t be run like restaurants where if you try to skimp on your bill they take you to the kitchen and make you wash dishes….