Ever heard of the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act? The law, often referred to as COBRA, mandated that some employees have the ability to continue health insurance coverage after leaving employment. President Reagan signed it into law in 1986. Many of us are familiar with that aspect of the legislation. The lesser know aspect of it is the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. The unfunded EMTALA mandate requires hospitals to provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay. It is the reason that many conservatives (before ObamaCare) felt that everyone should be required to carry health insurance - if they did then the hospitals would have a way to be paid for the services that they provide.
I think that an argument could be made that the insurance coverage mandate included in ObamaCare is needed because of the mandate included in ReaganCare.. I mean COBRA/EMTALA. So maybe the SCOTUS justices should consider repealing the EMTALA portion of COBRA when they adjudicate ObamaCare. Seems to me that you cannot accept or reject one mandate and not the other - unless you have a political bias of course.
I didn't know that about EMTALA. That doesn't seem very "conservative".
ReplyDeleteI agree Ma. Sadly no one is talking about repealing "conservative" ReaganCare.
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