I want to know why the Republican candidates for President, and Republicans in Congress aren't addressing the The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA)
Anyone who objects to the federal government mandating the purchase of health insurance (Republicans), should certainly be objecting to the federal government forcing private businesses to give away their products and services for free.
But that's exactly what the EMTALA does. It forces health care providers to provide health care to anyone in an emergency situation, regardless of their ability to pay.
We would never think of requiring Safeway, or Kroger to provide free food to anyone. Neither would we require Ford or General Motors to provide free cars to anyone. So why do we require doctors and hospitals to provide free health care?
Now I admit to being a bleeding heart liberal, who considers health care a right, distributed according to need, rather than a privilege, distributed according to the ability to pay, but even I disagree with this law either. [There shouldn't be a need for it!]
But since the latter is how we choose to treat health care in the US (as a privilege), then we need to address the inequities of a law that singles out one business, and forces that business to give away its services.
If nothing else, opening a dialogue on this topic should, once and for all, clearly define the type of country the US is, and the direction this country wants to take for the future.