The problem is laws were passed to say emergency rooms have to treat whoever shows up. And those costs get passed on to everyone who pays their medical bills and buys insurance. If those laws were repealed, I wouldn’t consider a tax to repay those hospitals. But as it is, we have freeloaders and free riders who game that system. If they all had insurance to pay the hospital bills, there would be no problem. So I would consider a tax to pay those hospitals for unpaid bills, but exempt people who have insurance, since they are already paying into a system that covers those bills.
I don’t agree with a law that says everyone who shows up at a grocery store has to be given free food. But it’s even worse to pass such a law and then not offer any way of those stores getting reimbursed for giving out the free stuff. So there are only two choices, repeal the laws mandating hospital care at E.R.s, or come up with a way of reimbursing them without going further into debt.
By all means, repeal the laws mandating hospital care at E.R.s, and wait and see how many cold-blooded medical institutions leave people to die outside their doors, or leave them in alleyways to rot. Try it.
...or come up with a way of reimbursing them without going further into debt which the Romney/ObamaCare model seeks to do by using government to force individuals to buy health insurance? That is a piss-poor way to do it that will lose and have bad consequences EVERY TIME. Again, if the Republican party thinks that's the way to "ensure" compassion between free-choosing patients and doctors who make a living doctoring, or any other cog in the medical industry and among charitable and community hospitals as such have been around for more than 100 years -- if the Republican party thinks goverment should shepherd individuals in those things, then it's the wrong party for me.
I want the party that says "Government has no business in relationships between patient, doctor, hospital, medical treatment, nurses, etc."