X-Message-Number: 27012
Date: Mon, 12 Sep 2005 09:57:28 -0400 (EDT)
From: Charles Platt <>
Subject: the plight of the poor
References: <>

> Since forty million American are deprived of regular medical care due
> to having no health insurance, this argument doesn't have much chance
> of going anywhere.

Thanks for this reminder, David Stodolsky, but it omits to
mention that any publicly funded hospital is compelled to
receive and treat any indigent person who shows up at its
emergency room, free of charge; and many such people thus use
emergency rooms as if they are doctor's offices. I speak from
experience. Indeed, having sampled emergency rooms in the
USA and in Great Britain, I can assure you that the free
service I received in the USA (back in the days when I had a
very low income) was far superior to that which I received in
Great Britain.

It is grossly misleading to characterize the US system as
locking out poor people. In Arizona I lived for four years in
an area where virtually no one had health insurance, yet my
neighbors received excellent care when they needed it. Of
course it was at the expense of other, paying patients, whose
fees were much higher as a result, but since this amounts to
a form of involuntary income redistribution, perhaps you
would think this is a fine idea.

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