As well as your ID, your home phone number, address, SSN, Insurance ID numbers, etc.

And if you don't have insurance when you show up what will happen under the current system? If you have no insurance to show proof of?

Right now, if you have insurance do you have to show proof of it?

I doubt, under ANY system, our hospitals would (TYPICALLY---always gotta disclaimer everything in the Cellar 'cause someone knew someone personally and IRL who died that way) let someone die on the front step because they can't produce the appropriate papers. If this begins to be the case, I REALLY don't want to live here anymore. :headshake

Yes you do have to show proof of insurance now, so they can bill it. I never went to the ER when I didn't have insurance but the signs say they can't turn anyone away... under the current system.

When my bones were protuding from my arm I don't remember them beating me up for my insurance card: they got me into treatment and the paperwork came later. This isn't, of course, the same as showing up with the sniffles, which is what uninsured people HAVE to do because they have nowhere else to go, under the current system.

They'll want to. And if they can get it, they'll want it before treatment. But they can't, and shouldn't, deny treatment if they don't get it. For obvious, practical, reasons like time-sensitive situations, unconscious victims, or contagion, and for moral reasons, both general and Hyppocratic.

I suspect that in the end, the verification step will happen as part of your yearly taxes. Show proof of insurance, or $3,800 (or whatever the final penalty is) gets tacked on to your tax bill. The hospital will ask for insurance information and/or direct payment, like they do now, and some people will still tell them they have none, like they do now. At most the hospital will report you to whatever agency for having no insurance, while still treating you.

Video killed the radio star and insurance companies killed the Hippocratic Oath! ;)

People die outside the ER and in the waiting room all the time. Usually because of the long wait and poor triage. I know there were some cases of patient dumping that happened in Texas a while back but laws were changed to prevent it. I am sure people die because hospitals go on divert and cannot accept patients as well.

I guess that is possible if that part of the bill makes it to final passage. The bill still has not provided for a lot of the problems that are needed to fix healtcare today. And we are about to spend a whole lot of money not fixing it.

See? ALL THE TIME. Bring out yer dead!

I've seen bloody stumps of people crawling all over the hospital lawn, just waiting to get in.

OK, sure. All the time.

Ok, not all the time, but it is in the news frequently. :D [borg]Google is your friend. [/borg]

Shaun of the Dead quote?

Well that's not true.... there are walk in clinics, I've been to one a few times. They don't deal with insurance at all, just cash.

I just don't understand how the illegal immigration issue can be ignored when reforming health care. I'm not saying I have the answer... but I also didn't run for president.

lol

I just knew someone would know of it happening: I'm sure it does, I'm just saying it isn't exactly the intention.

I still think that with proper healthcare options, CITIZENS wouldn't need to use the emergency room for non-life-threatening illness or injury and thus alleviate the problems in overcrowded emergency rooms.