9.5 million previously uninsured now have health insurance coveage

How can you say it's not a good thing? The idea that all of the people that live in our country should have access to decent healthcare? Come on, I get that we disagree on the details but shit....what better purpose than this? Originally Posted by timpage

Everyone already had access to healthcare!

You're a funny mother fucker... Originally Posted by IIFFOFRDB

Not really.....

I suppose a cite to the law would be asking too much!

I am familiar with grant/funding requirements for health care facilities who accept Medicare and Medicaid recipients as patients. For instance, M.D. Anderson will accept Medicare patients, but not all patients with insurance. When the Medicare patient "checks out" the Medicare patient has a "balance due"! Is it "free"? No. Shop around, if you are diagnosed with cancer.

MDA has accepted Medicare because as a teaching/research facility it receives Federal (and State) funding from the taxpayers and as a condition of doing so it contracted to accept Medicare patients. But if you think you can "check in" for "free" with no coverage... try it!!! Originally Posted by LexusLover

Here is the link to the EMTLA law. Basically, any hospital that accepts Medicare payments from the government has to accept any patient that can't pay. Also, there is no reimbursement process in place for the hospitals that do participate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergen...tive_Labor_Act

I thought this too...

Until I spoke with a woman who didn't have insurance in the past. She said if you are a woman or child without insurance that you could apply for "emergency Medicaid" at the hospital. That she had a broken wrist paid for as such, extensive treatments for one of her sons and an appendectomy paid for a nephew. That she applied for it at the hospital, it was granted, and she (or her sister) didn't pay anything.

My guess there are a lot of government programs out there for the poor that I have no idea of.

I thought this too...

Until I spoke with a woman who didn't have insurance in the past. She said if you are a woman or child without insurance that you could apply for "emergency Medicaid" at the hospital. That she had a broken wrist paid for as such, extensive treatments for one of her sons and an appendectomy paid for a nephew. That she applied for it at the hospital, it was granted, and she (or her sister) didn't pay anything.

My guess there are a lot of government programs out there for the poor that I have no idea of. Originally Posted by gnadfly

you have to bee poor to qualify ... there are people that make too much $$ to qualify for Medicaid and not enough to afford health insurance ... if you're interested, ACA expanded Medicaid qualifications to include more poor people ..

http://www.medicaid.gov/Medicaid-CHI...igibility.html