The problem is that immigrants with huge families use the ER as a routine health clinic for free non-emergency treatment like they do in Mexico.
They have forced the closure of countless American ERs with this usage thereby truly harming those Americans who actually need immediate emergency treatment.
Ray, that is only the tip of the iceberg.
Over 30 million American citizens are caught between the medicaid qualifications and the ability to afford insurance.
Some say it is far more than that but I will use the low end figure for the purpose of debate.
All of these people are FORCED to use the emergency room for any type of treatment they can get.
But that treatment is by far inadequate and equates to less than 3rd world care.
Say for example you have severe anal bleeding and go there hoping to get a 6 thousand dollar colonoscopy. (All this does is assist with a diagnosis, it is not a cure.)
You can not get that at the emergency room.
If you do manage to get the 6 grand (they will want it up front in advance), then you are diagnosed with stage 1 colon cancer, your out of luck.
You are stable. It is not immediately life threatening. Your trip to the ER is finished.
Know what they will do? They will take your blood pressure and your temperature and charge you $800.00 for that. (But they will at least bill you.)
To get the stage 1 cancer removed, it costs $108,000.00. And they will want that up front.
But here is the kicker... If you have insurance, your company will get the hospital to reduce your bill to $14,500.00
There is very little routine non emergency treatment that the emergency room can do.
They will not run tests, give preventative care, or perform surgeries for non immediate life threatening illnesses.
It is hardly a solution.
But it is not illegal aliens clogging up the system, not on a national level. It is American citizens that are too rich for medicaid and too poor for insurance.
In other words, it is the people who work. In many cases, work the hardest of us all.
Roofers, painters, carpenters, tile layers, waiters, bartenders, fast food, stockers, mechanics, and so on.
People who do not want welfare and work hard for a living. These people get less care than those who do nothing.
Those who do nothing get medicaid.