The hospitals usually bear the brunt of the costs and they are then distributed as higher costs to the paying patients.
kevinventullo 9 hours ago [-]
Yes, if we want to live in a society where hospitals don’t throw people out to die on the street because they’re not carrying an insurance card, then someone has to pay for it.
strken 4 hours ago [-]
I think the suggestion is that there are better ways to choose who bears the cost than "a random selection of the sick people who walked through the door at roughly the same time", and also ways to house unwell but stable people at lower expense and with greater quality of life for them.
kylehotchkiss 11 hours ago [-]
Couldn’t the DA’s office help “facilitate” identification by having an officer ask the patient to ID themselves, “cite” them for not identifying themselves, allowing a fingerprint read, and then deciding to “not file” or drop the case? This seems like something that’s in the best interest of the patient and the hospital.
tdeck 7 hours ago [-]
Most people don't have fingerprints on file, do they? I've been fingerprinted when I was working in a childcare setting and had to get a background check, but it's not like everyone in the US has been fingerprinted.
Spooky23 3 hours ago [-]
Disclosing criminal justice data to third parties without a law enforcement purpose is a felony. Likewise, the hospital sharing your protected health information with the police is a civil liability and perhaps a criminal violation for the hospital employee.
This is one of the reasons why people are very upset with the Palantir stuff at the federal level, joining IRS and Social Security data with other information. The data is basically all FTI and SS information now (which is secret/protected) and many uses of it are crimes.
I consulted on a criminal case years ago where local government people were criminally charged for aggregating child support (Tax data) and police data, and using it inappropriately.
ethan_smith 10 hours ago [-]
This approach would likely be struck down as an unconstitutional pretext search violating the 4th Amendment and HIPAA patient protections.
IncreasePosts 11 hours ago [-]
What right do police have to ask random people to ID themselves in America?
anonym29 2 hours ago [-]
The same right random, unidentified deadbeats ought to have to hoist their unpaid medical bills on the rest of civilized society.
voidUpdate 2 hours ago [-]
Imagine that... other people paying for your medical bills through things like taxes. What a terrible thing that would be!
buckle8017 11 hours ago [-]
Some states have stop and identify laws.
These are unquestionably unconstitutional but that's never fixed because the DA will never pursue charges.
Without charges nobody can force the issue because nobody has standing.
kylehotchkiss 10 hours ago [-]
Ahh I’ve seen bodycam videos from these stop and ID states where the suspect refusing to identify becomes an additional charge. Didn’t realize that CA wasn’t one (but TIL!)
khuey 9 hours ago [-]
California did have one but it was struct down by the Supreme Court in Kolender v. Lawson.
This is one of the reasons why people are very upset with the Palantir stuff at the federal level, joining IRS and Social Security data with other information. The data is basically all FTI and SS information now (which is secret/protected) and many uses of it are crimes.
I consulted on a criminal case years ago where local government people were criminally charged for aggregating child support (Tax data) and police data, and using it inappropriately.
These are unquestionably unconstitutional but that's never fixed because the DA will never pursue charges.
Without charges nobody can force the issue because nobody has standing.