"Trauma in the ER: Who covers the uninsured?" By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times

Trauma in the ER: Who covers the uninsured?

By Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-emergency-care-20120619,0,1062489.story?track=lat-pick

"SNIP....................................................

WASHINGTON — Trauma surgeons at MedStar Washington Hospital Center didn't know the name of the young man wheeled into the trauma center, unconscious and bleeding from his face and head after being hit by a car. Nor did they know he lacked insurance.

But as they worked to save his life, doctors and nurses at the capital's largest hospital ran a dizzying battery of lab tests and high-tech scans. Surgeons operated repeatedly, at one point removing a portion of his skull to relieve pressure on the brain.

As happens daily in emergency rooms nationwide, the uninsured patient received medical care guaranteed by a generation-old federal mandate that requires hospitals to care for all in need, regardless of ability to pay.

For 26 years, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, has been a bedrock principle of American healthcare — passed by a bipartisan Congress, signed by a Republican president and largely unchallenged since by hospitals and doctors.

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