OT: A guy tried to refuse being taken to the hospital because he didn’t have insurance. They took him anyway and now he owes $40,000.

littlegreenfootballs.com

He had a head injury, so they really had no choice but to bring him in, he couldn’t meaningfully give consent. You could argue, though, that nobody who’s just been in an accident can meaningfully consent, head injury or no— shock will make you do weird stuff.

So basically, he wanted to do what the Randites want, but it shows that it just doesn’t work— too often medical cases remove the ability to consent. He’ll probably wind up paying a percentage, and Medicaid and the hospital (which is a non-profit) will split the rest of the costs, meaning that tax-payers and people with insurance will pay for his costs.

So we already have socialized health insurance, we just have a really fucking inefficient form of it. The problem hasn’t gone away. This is one of the many problems that can’t be solved as long as the GOP is run by extremists and/or as long as they retain control of as many state legislatures as they do.