Congress passed the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act in 1986. It requires hospital emergency rooms to provide emergency care to all persons regardless of citizenship and ability to pay. It’s been the law of the land for 27 years. Hospitals pass along the costs they incur under this law to those of us who buy health insurance through their rates. There does not seem to be a ground swell of opposition to this law, but there is a lot of opposition to the individual mandate provision of Obamacare. If hospitals are required by law to care for us, why should we not be required by law to carry the insurance that would pay for that care? Why do critics of an individual health insurance mandate not call for repeal of the Emergency Medical Treatment Act? Following the same reasoning, why don’t they call for repeal of laws requiring us to carry liability insurance in order to drive our cars? I don’t get it!
