Tell me how you get through the door without providing proof of insurance or proof you can pay. If it is an emergency, they will stabilize you and transport you if you can't. If it isn't an emergency, they point you to the door.
This, of course, is a lie (or perhaps it is ignorance on your part). It depends totally on the hospital. For example, if you walk in the door of Parkland Hospital (or are carried), you are going to get the same kind of treatment regardless of your insurance:
====================
"Since Parkland is a public hospital, it must accept patients from Dallas County regardless of their ability to pay. As such, uninsured residents from surrounding counties that do not have public hospitals of their own (and which are not subject to the special property tax used for Parkland operations) regularly seek treatment at Parkland. These surrounding counties actually transport indigent and uninsured patients to Parkland in county owned ambulances and drop them off. This has caused financial turmoil for the hospital in recent years, as the surrounding counties are not required by law to reimburse Parkland for services provided to their residents (though some of them have on rare occasions done so). Also, Parkland does not request information on a patient's legal status.
A patient survey indicated 70% of the women who gave birth at Parkland in the first three months of 2006 were undocumented immigrants. The yearly tally for 2005 was "at least 56%"."
================
The same is true of hundreds, probably thousands of large and small hospitals around the country.
Today I was in Pine Bluff, AR, a small community served by a single hospital. Anyone who shows up will be treated. If you've got insurance, great, if not, you'll be seen. The community is comprised of large numbers of uninsured persons (it being located where there is little industry and a lot of dirt-poor people) and the hospital has been caring for them as long as I can remember. And they get pretty damned good care, all things considered. If you get sent to another hospital it is because a bigger hospital's facilities were needed. |
