Inside the ER

Los Angeles Times: Trauma In The ER: Who Covers The Uninsured?
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 (Levey, 6/18).