Am I the only one who remembers the El "A" hospital dumping patients on Skid Row?

Sad story, yes. Luckily, there is something called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) which requires any ER in the United States to treat and stabilize a patient regardless of their ability to pay for those immediate, life saving services.

— SonoArtist (@STLhickchick) May 1, 2019

That tweet is responding to this series of tweets, retweeted by Maggie Haberman:

One of the most heartbreaking things I’ve read in our ER bill database:

A 2-year-old eats a dangerous drug. Poison control tells her mom to take the toddler to the ER immediately.

But the family is already in debt from another ER bill. They can’t afford another one. (1/2)

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) April 30, 2019

Here’s what the mom does:

She drives to the ER. But she doesn't go inside.

Instead, she and her toddler sit in the parking lot for hours. They watch the Little Mermaid on loop.

The mom thinks: I can go inside if she has a seizure. Otherwise, I can’t afford it. (2/2)

(2/2).

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) April 30, 2019

Luckily, the toddler was fine. They never went into the emergency room, and eventually went home.

I think about this particular family a lot. Their story shows how high prices don’t just mean big medical bills. They also make Americans wary of using our health system. (3/2)

— Sarah Kliff (@sarahkliff) April 30, 2019

Fortunately, the child didn't need "life saving treatment."  But if the Mom had rolled the dice and walked through the doors of the ER, and had the same outcome, she might well have faced the ER bill for bringing a kid in who didn't need it.

The family was already in debt from a prior ER bill.  Why wasn't that one "free"?  Largely because all the law requires is that you stabilize the patient.  After that, you can send them on, or just away.  I've had personal experience with hospitals anxious to empty the wards on the Wednesday night before Thanksgiving (the patient was back in the ER by Friday).  That patient was on Medicare.  Don't tell me the ER's of America are 'compassionate' because of that law.  It's a lie.*

And I'm sure this would have helped a lot:

“We have got to support a free market where patients are making decisions, not the government,” [Seema] Verma[, a top White House health administrator,] said.

“Ms. Verma, speaking at The Wall Street Journal Health Forum, said that the administration is pursuing a better strategy aimed at giving consumers reduced costs through competition and price transparency,” the report said.

“She pointed to a new requirement that hospitals post their list prices for services and treatment, as well as innovations in the way doctors are paid for patient outcomes rather than the number of tests and services they provide,” the report.

“It starts with price transparency,” Verma added.

So let me run to the ER but check their price menu on the doors before I decide whether to go in or drive to another ER.  When you can't afford the first ER, the thing to do in an emergency is find one you can afford.  It's all about price transparency; health care be damned!

*Of course, Medicare likes to move patients out, too.  Trying to prevent fraud.  They also look askance at patients who have to return too quickly; means the hospital didn't do its job.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't, and who pays for that?  (And I don't mean who comes up with the cash.)