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What really grates on me with this sort of thinking, is that the corruption of it all is completely glossed over. How's about a whole bunch of us actual citizens elect to go cash only, essentially going underground, stop paying taxes, apply for every single form of public assistance available and use hospitals emergency rooms for primary care? Does anyone want to speculate that this would "benefit" our respective states? We could work cheaper. We'd still have as much or more disposable income, too. But, I have no doubt that the lackadaisical attitudes of various governmental agencies would change markedly, if enough of us cash cows actually did such a thing.

I know what you mean. Fortunately the ERs here aren't shutting down but they are being affected. I just paid a hospital bill and it was about $300 more than the last delivery (just a few years ago) which had more complications. I talked to the accounting dept. They said all was in order. I asked if I could be bold enough to ask them if the increased cost was due to and increase in cost of the uninsured, specifically illegal immigrants. The accountant openly said yes (I got the impression they weren't too happy about it either).

They weren't sure about the ER's operations as they didn't oversee their budget/billing but believe they are still running in the black. One can only hope.