Here’s an interesting list published by the Los Angeles Times – conservatives tell us that we have universal care becuase any of us can go to an emergency room for treatment.
Never mind that ER’s are the worst imaginable care delivery system – we can’t go there for checkups or tests. We have to be in crisis. Never mind that the treatment is horribly expensive and that it is anything but free (save for the poorest among us). The above article points out something even more interesting.
There are 39 hospital emergency rooms in California that have closed since 1998. The problem is particularly acute in Los Angeles, with its large illegal immigrant population. It’s a private sector response and it is routine and rational – if a profit center becomes a loss center, close it down.
That’s actually a crappy answer to the problem, but the only one private-sector health care can give us. Universal care conflicts with their business model.
Piece of Mindful 
“The problem is particularly acute in Los Angeles, with its large illegal immigrant population”
Not to mention their lawyers. Here’s an example from the other coast:
http://www.tcpalm.com/news/2009/feb/22/rich-campbell-family-injured-illegal-immigrant-sho/
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The problem of illegals is one of illegal employment. If we were to institute fines and imprisonment for hiring and enticing them to come here, we would see a gradual decrease in their numbers.
It is the lure of payment of cheap wages absent benefits, of essentially indentured servitude, that is at the heart of the matter. They used to come here, harvest our crops for us, and then return home each year. Now they stay.
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Or, their employers could provide health care coverage, but that’s not part of their business model either. Profit over people by externalizing costs.
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