I'm Not Buying This

The uninsured . . . universal health care . . . can't pay for health care . . .

Sometimes the noise is deafening. Of course most of the time the complaints are without merit.

Here is one of those. The New York Times published a report on overcrowding in ER's due to (at least in part) the number of uninsured.

One emergency room doctor in Iowa, Dr. Thomas E. Benzoni, said he recently saw a mother come in with her two children for what he thought was routine care. When he asked her why she had not gone to her family doctor, she said she did not have health insurance.

You don't need health insurance to go to a doc for routine care. This is tantamount to saying you can't get your oil changed in your car because you don't have auto insurance.

“I don’t know what else she was supposed to do,” Dr. Benzoni said.

Here's a thought. Why not pay for the office visit out of pocket?

Certainly much less expensive than paying ER charges for a routine visit. That can turn a $100 office visit into a $500 trip.

Until hospital ER's do a better job of triage, and turning away those who do not truly need emergency care, this problem will only get worse.

It is like the folks who call 911 to get the phone number for Domino's Pizza.

Time to stop coddling these folks and force them to grow up.