"They all get free Health Care at the ER"

[WingDinger]

Since when does an unfunded Federal mandate get used as a positive rethug talking point? And why arent hospitals screaming?

[Angry Dragon]

1. Link?? ......... Is it a quote??

[WingDinger]

6. It is not an official quote, but this link is Romney's words critiqued.

http://www.epmonthly.com/whitecoat/2010/03/need-entirely-free-health-care-go-to-the-er/

[Angry Dragon]

9. Thank you

[Earth_First]

2. Seriously?

Last time I went to the ER for a simple corneal abrasion, it cost me well over $2000

[WingDinger]

4. Point is, Rethugs are using Unf. Mand. as their counterpoint to responsible policy.

[ErikJ]

14. Use a fake name and SS number.

I had a friend that did this a couple times. They ask for family information so have to go prepared. Say you have no phone at the time so you'll have to contact them.

[MiniMe]

3. It isn't free

They treat you, but you owe for the visit.

[Brickbat]

5. Any cost that the hospital "covers" is actually passed on to those of us with insurance in the form

of higher rates.

[WingDinger]

7. You are leaving out one sucker.

The charges are jacked, if you claim to have no insurance. This is to pad their using it as a writeoff. And, what they sue you for.

Insurance companies prorate their reimbursements, so, the hospital passes on the costs to those least able to afford them.

[redqueen]

8. Cost of preventive, timely care < cost of emergency care.

The man is a moron.

[jwirr]

10. The ER in our community is not the best place to go get compitent health care. I went in with chest

pains and they got the diagnosis wrong twice. They are known for not getting it right. Mostly because they are not familiar with you like your own doctor is. My doctor showed me the exrays etc. from the two visits and explain why they were incorrect.

So they want the uninsured to go to this kind of treatment? I should explain that there is a big difference between a small town ER like our and a city ER that has access to specialist.

[marlakay]

11. If they are talking about the poor you get what you pay or don't pay for

My daughter years ago not on health care almost died because of being misdiagnosed at a er in Kansas. They told her she had infection and sent her home and she had appendicitis which burst a few days later and a simple operation turned into two weeks in ICU where she almost died.

When my son n law went back for copies of records to sue just to pay the bill, was changed so lawyer said they couldn't do anything and surgeon said he was sorry but wouldn't testify against hospital worried about his job.

That was ten years ago, now she has good job with insurance but that experience forced them who at the time were young with minimum wage jobs to have to do bankruptcy at early age.

Shame on our country. Shame….

[jmowreader]

12. None of these eighthwits have seen a hospital's annual report

Any public hospital's annual report, and they all produce one, contains two charts:

Services billed

Billings not paid

Under the "not paid" includes things like indigent care--treatment performed on people who cannot or will not pay their doctor bill--which is what the Repukes are talking about when they say people get free healthcare at the ER.

The fuckers who say the indigent get free healthcare at the ER are the same ones who bitch about the $20 doses of aspirin the hospital issues to patients who are in pain. There's a reason aspirin costs $10 per tablet at the hospital when it costs $5 per bottle at the drugstore: indigent care. If they're treating poor people's head colds at the ER and not being reimbursed for it, everyone else gets to help pay their bills.

Also, in case the Party of Fiscal Responsibility hadn't noticed, the ER is the most expensive place to treat anything.

There are two ways the healthcare reform bill is going to lower healthcare costs: there won't be indigent care anymore because eventually everyone will have SOME form of health insurance, and the ER won't be treating nearly as many head colds because it will no longer be the only option available to the poor.

[DefenseLawyer]

13. And they drive to the ER in Cadillacs! n/t

[Odin2005]

15. It's a talking point aimed at low-information voters.

People who are simply incapable of connecting the "no such thing as a free lunch" dots.