Can Any Medical Professionals Shed Light On This?
Posted By Paul Nachman On 14 February 2008

The Bradenton (FL) Herald had a routine article the other day [Group to educate on immigration, by Maura Possley, February 12, 2008: http://www.bradenton.com/local/story/394237.html ] about a couple of local activists who are out to obfuscate the difference between immigrants and illegal aliens.

(You might want to complain to the reporter about her shoddy reporting in parroting the activists’ agenda. She, too, conflates legal and illegal immigration, even where she isn’t directly quoting the two bleaters. Her email address is given in the article.)

More interesting is one of the online comments associated with the article. It’s comment 6536.27, posted by “TC12″ at 9:38 p.m. on February 12. TC12 writes, in part:
My son needed surgery. I called Manatee Memorial and it was going to cost $11,000 for a 45 minute surgery. I called Manatee Surgery Center & the same procedure cost $2500. You know why? Because the surgery center doesn’t have to take everyone that walks in the door, insurance or not (mostly not!)
This is interesting, because the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (the EMTALA law of 1986, 42 U.S.C. § 1395dd) is the unfunded mandate that is — via uncompensated care provided in their emergency rooms — beggaring hospitals nationwide, especially under the demands of illegal aliens. As Wikipedia describes it,
EMTALA] requires hospitals and ambulance services to provide care to anyone needing emergency treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. There are no reimbursement provisions. As a result of the act, patients needing emergency treatment can be discharged only under their own informed consent or when their condition requires transfer to a hospital better equipped to administer the treatment.
(Wikipedia also quotes a Kaiser Family Foundation study to the effect that illegal aliens are disproportionately low users of hospital emergency rooms. My skepticism over such claims is informed by reportage such as this by VDARE’s own Joe Guzzardi. Joe was actually writing about people here legally, but why would the dynamics be different for illegal aliens?)

Anyway, I urge any medically knowledgeable VDARE readers who can educate us on distinctions among types of medical facilites with respect to the EMTALA law — such as made by commenter TC12, quoted above — to do so.

The other comments associated with that Bradenton Herald article are overwhelmingly heartening, with a few of the usual mindless exceptions mixed in.
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