Re "Romney misleads on health care and he shouldn't get away with it" (Paul Krugman, Oct. 6): One sentence in the article is the key to the rising cost of healthcare in America. Gov. Mitt Romney has said that the poor can go the the emergency rooms of hospitals to get their healthcare. It is true. The indigent have free healthcare now and have had free healthcare since 1986.
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act signed into law by President Ronald Reagan, hospitals and ambulance services must provide care to anyone needing emergency healthcare treatment regardless of citizenship, legal status or ability to pay.
There are no reimbursement provisions from the government for this law. Hospitals pass the cost to those who have the ability to pay. More than 40 percent of insurance premiums go to pay for the uninsured. President Obama'a health care plan would eliminate the need for this law and it should be repealed.
-- Martin Marovich, Rocklin
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