Government-mandated Critical Care
In the United States and most industrialized nations, emergency medical providers are required to treat any patient that has a life-threatening condition, irrespective of the patient's financial resources. In the US, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) requires that hospitals treat all patients in need of emergency medical care without considering patients' ability to pay for service.
This government mandated care places a cost burden on medical providers, as critically ill patients lacking financial resources must be treated. Medical providers compensate for this cost by passing costs on to other parts of the medical system, through increased prices for other patients and through collection of government subsidies.
Read more about this topic: Health Care Prices
Famous quotes containing the words critical and/or care:
“The critical method which denies literary modernity would appear—and even, in certain respects, would be—the most modern of critical movements.”
—Paul Deman (1919–1983)
“In short I must confide in you to take such care of the men under you as an economical householder would of his own family, doing every thing within himself as far as he can, and calling for as few supplies as possible. The less you depend for supplies from this quarter, the less you will be disappointed.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)