Something has been sticking in my brain like a splinter since the festering boil that is the GOP imposed itself upon the human consciousness via its "debates". I use that term loosely, as a debate usually involves an exchange of ideas and I'm not sure I saw anything of the sort here. What I did see is someone who claims to be a physician, blithely unaware of the consequences of actions.
Ron Paul says something to the effect of "we never turned them away at the hospital..." in his diatribe about libertarian America as he sees it should be. We should take care of ourselves, he says. Except when we don't, when we don't turn them away at the hospital.
If one looks at the Wikipedia entry for Ron Paul (http://en.wikipedia.org/...), you can see his academic and professional history is well padded with private institution credentials, including the hospitals he is referring to when he says "we never turned them away". What Ron Paul doesn't appear to grasp, is that these private hospitals have written down losses for such cases for as long as private hospitals have existed. Or he does know and would like you not to know. Which is worse? Which is more likely?
Who does the good doctor thinks pays for the services the hospitals fail to gain payment for? Why, the US taxpayer, via tax write-offs in the form of losses. It's only good business! And perfectly legal.
Who says we don't have socialized medicine?