As a country, we made a law that the ER has to treat you no matter what regardless of your financial status. That is an ultimate backstop: if people are about to die, as a society we decided that they should not if there is a means to prevent it.
Medicaid is there to allow some people to go to regular doctors to save a couple of bucks vs. the ER. And it also pays for a lot of nursing homes.
I guess what I’m saying here, is the headline is kinda misleading. ICE wants the data, true, so they can find deportation targets. But it’s probably more about inflicting additional cruelty, forcing people to ERs instead of clinics; or cutting funding to health care providers and forcing rural hospitals to close.
Didn’t Tennessee just decide to let their professionals deny care to people because they don’t agree with their “lifestyle”? Is it going to matter if they are in ER?
On April 24th, Tennessee’s 2025 Medical Ethics Defense Act went into effect. It gives physicians, hospital systems and insurers, among others, the legal right to deny healthcare to patients based on religious, moral or ethical beliefs. There are no protections for people in rural areas with limited options. There’s no requirement to refer patients elsewhere. And there’s no legal recourse. The woman at the town hall explained that her representatives are not responsive to her questions, even as she repeatedly calls Sen. Marsha Blackburn. When she reached staff at Sen. Bill Hagerty’s office, they told her, “he’s not obligated to listen to his constituents.”
As a country, we made a law that the ER has to treat you no matter what regardless of your financial status. That is an ultimate backstop: if people are about to die, as a society we decided that they should not if there is a means to prevent it.
Medicaid is there to allow some people to go to regular doctors to save a couple of bucks vs. the ER. And it also pays for a lot of nursing homes.
I guess what I’m saying here, is the headline is kinda misleading. ICE wants the data, true, so they can find deportation targets. But it’s probably more about inflicting additional cruelty, forcing people to ERs instead of clinics; or cutting funding to health care providers and forcing rural hospitals to close.
Didn’t Tennessee just decide to let their professionals deny care to people because they don’t agree with their “lifestyle”? Is it going to matter if they are in ER?
https://nashvillebanner.com/2025/07/20/doctor-denies-pregnant-woman-care/