That's what emergency rooms are for.

[Rozlee]

When you're very sick, any emergency room will treat you, right? Possibly. They treated my sister's fiance back in 1999 when he started having severe stomach pain, constant nausea, vomiting and became very weak. They gave him anti-emetics, Mylanta and told him to keep as hydrated as possible. When he kept getting worse and went back a week later, they got more pro-active and did some labs. They didn't like what they saw and did radiological studies.

Stomach cancer. An oncological consult showed it was late Stage IV.

He didn't have health insurance. He was self-employed doing landscaping jobs and didn't make much. He was raising three little granddaughters. His daughter was in jail and hadn't been much of a mother to begin with. Their father was just as bad. Worse, actually.

But, if he'd had insurance, he might have been able to go to a clinic and had a primary health physician when the stomach pain first started and he began losing weight a couple of years before. It wasn't just something that came out of the blue. It was gradual. But, emergency rooms are called emergency because that's who they see. Patients that are having a severe emergency crisis. A severe illness that got that way after being ignored or not taken care of because the patient couldn't afford it's treatment in it's early treatable stage. The person who has a severe headache with numbness in the hands but doesn't have insurance and can't see a doctor until they're suffering a full blown stroke. The person that suffers from relentless heartburn and tingling in his arm that lands him in the ER with a debilitating heart attack weeks later. Someone who has pain in their leg and winds up a month later with a pulmonary embolism from a blood clot. Many people know something's wrong. If they had insurance and access to a family physician, they could be treated early. I'm sure it happens to many people every year.

George W. Bush once said famously that no American is denied health insurance. You just go to an emergency room.

Tino died from advanced stomach cancer within a few months of his diagnosis. His granddaughters were raised by other family members, but their Abuelito was the most beloved person in their lives. Yeah, the teabaggers scream. Let him die.

[abelenkpe]

1. Not only would teabaggers say

let him die they would then explain he didn't have to take a job as a self employed landscaper, that he chose to be a self employed landscaper. Therefore whatever happened to him is his own doing.

Personally I think that sucks, but I've been around and around with my ignorant tea pot relatives and know this is what they'd say.

Very sad story. He sounds like a wonderful person. I hope the girls went on to have happy health lives nonetheless.

:hug:

[KT2000]

2. ERs are required to stabilize

a life threatening situation, that is all. They are not required to treat illness. This is what the Rs and TP people are not admitting. They are either lying through their teeth or not informed.

After they stabilize the condition or set the bone or whatever, they say "see your family physician." Guess what - you can't make an appointment with a doctor without insurance - at least around here.

People such as Ron Paul are spouting outdated information and getting away with it.

[cutlassmama]

3. and the TB's would say he should have pulled himself up by his bootstraps

and gotten health insurance, raising three children, on a landscaper's salary...why he should have had 2-3 jobs! :sarcasm: nevermind that childcare would have eaten anything he brought home.