Title: The Right to Treatment – Healthcare
Headings: The Right to Treatment
The Right to Treatment
Inside The Right to Treatment

Content: The Right to Treatment – Healthcare
The Right to Treatment
If individuals do not carry health insurance, they are still entitled to hospital emergency care, including labor and delivery care, regardless of their ability to pay. The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), 42 U.S.C. § 1395, which is a separate section of the more comprehensive 1985 Consolidated Omnibus Reconciliation Act (COBRA), mandates minimum standards for emergency care by hospital emergency rooms. The law requires that all patients who present with an emergency medical condition must receive treatment to the extent that their emergency condition is medically “stabilized,” irrespective of their ability to pay for such treatment. An emergency medical condition is defined under federal law as one that manifests itself by acute symptoms of sufficient severity (including severe pain, psychiatric disturbance, and/or symptoms of substance abuse) such that the absence of immediate medical attention could reasonably be expected to result in the following: placing the health of the individual (or unborn child) in serious jeopardy
the serious impairment of a bodily function
the serious dysfunction of any bodily function or part
the inadequate time to effect a safe transfer of a pregnant woman to another hospital before delivery, or, that the transfer may pose a threat to the health or safety of the woman or unborn child
The law goes on to define “stabilization” as meaning “that no material deterioration of the condition is likely within reasonable medical probability to result from or occur during the transfer of the patient from a facility” (or discharge). However, once the emergency is over and a patient’s condition is stabilized, the patient can be discharged and refused further treatment by private hospitals and most public hospitals. If the individual seeks routine medical care or schedule a doctor’s appointment for non-emergency medical problems, doctors have a general right to refuse treatment if they have no insurance or any other means of paying for the provided care. There are numerous protections for HIV-positive and AIDS patients that prohibit hospitals and facilities from refusing treatment if the facility’s staff has the appropriate training and resources. However, most private physicians and dentists are under ethical but not legal obligations to provide treatment. Individuals also have a legal right to not be released prematurely from a hospital.