Uninsured Patients Hit Doctors Where It Hurts

The April 15 article about the increasing numbers of uninsured patients presenting to hospital emergency rooms ignores the effect on physicians who practice in those hospitals. As a physician on staff at my local hospital, I am forced to back up the ER. If I refuse, I am thrown off staff. This means that if called by the ER to admit an uninsured patient, I cannot refuse. I must care for the patient during the entire hospitalization for no fee.

Further, there is high liability risk when meeting a patient for the first time in the middle of a medical emergency that requires hospitalization or surgery. The hospital receives money from the state and federal government that covers part of the hospital’s loss for caring for these patients. The doctors receive nothing. When did the 14th Amendment get repealed?

Allan Weisshar MD

Torrance