el Don /SANTA ANA COLLEGE • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014/eldonnews.org
HEALTH
STYLE
HEALING
IN THE USA
A retrospective look at America’s
fledgling healthcare system
BY JEANNE BARKEMEIJER DE WIT / el Don
The EMTALA
requires all
emergency
rooms at hospitals participating in Medicare to provide
treatment to
anyone with
an emergency
medical condition (EMC),
regardless of
their ability
to pay.
In 1950s America, getting
medical care was a relatively
simple process. You saw your
family doctor at his office.
When you were too ill to see
him, he came to your home.
Children received vaccinations
at school or at their primary
doctor’s office.
Emergency rooms were just
that, a place people went
during emergencies. If you
didn’t have insurance or cash,
many hospitals would turn
you away.
During the ‘80s a number of
U.S. hospitals regularly turned
away patients. A great many
people died as a result. Congress passed the Emergency
“
Medical Treatment & Labor Act
in 1986, largely in response to
public outrage.
After EMTALA was voted
into law, emergency rooms
throughout the nation were
swamped with indigent and
uninsured sick. The government’s definition of what
constitutes emergency medical
care only covers a small segment of E.R. patients.
Ultimately, the government
refused to reimburse hospitals
for much of the care they provided to these patients.
Hospitals were in a double
bind. If they refused to treat
patients they faced government sanctions and fines. If
they treated all patients, they
were forced to eat a large portion of the costs.
Some hospitals were losing
up to $10 million a day. Burdened with crippling debt,
countless hospitals eventually
closed their doors. Los Angeles
and Orange County hospitals
were hit particularly hard.
Fast forward 30 years.
Nothing is simple.
The Affordable Healthcare
Act has yet to fulfill even its
most basic goals. There’s a
critical shortage of hospitals,
clinics and doctors. Medical
costs are so high that even
with insurance, few people
can afford care.
The doctor of the future will give no medicine but will
interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in
diet and in the cause and prevention of disease.
—Thomas Edison
“
FAST
FACT
el Don /SANTA ANA COLLEGE • MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2014/eldonnews.org
EARLY ROOTS
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