Medical madness in murica

[Jannabear]

There are states that have laws protecting parents who practice faith healing and don't get their kids treatment.
This is fucking insanity.

[TomFoolery]

Yes. There are a lot of medical oddities in this country. Of course they vary by state, but I for one have always wondered why:

1. A teenage mother cannot consent to medical treatment for herself but can consent to medical treatment on behalf of her infant child.
2. Sometimes the only way a parent who is uninsured or underinsured can get treatment for their mentally ill child is to give up custody to the state, which can also mean accepting neglect charges. In that case, it's neglect if you don't help them, and it's neglect if you do.
3. Abortion isn't technically illegal in any state (yet), but a pregnant woman should be expected to carry a fetus to term in order to "give it the chance to live" but no one can be compelled to donate organs or other tissues in order to save the life of someone else and that's respected as a "personal choice."
4. My step daughter can't take peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school because a few kids are allergic, but other kids can take measles to school because their parents choose not to vaccinate them (for personal reasons, not medical ones) and that's totally ok.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

I've said many times now that if you're uninsured and go to the hospital for an illness there's a good chance you'll be wheeled right out to the parking lot and told good luck, but if you tell them that the illness is making you suicidal you'll hit the medical treatment jackpot .They can let you die from lack of care, but you try to do yourself in and they'll sell a wing of the hospital to fix you right on up..

[TomFoolery]

I've said many times now that if you're uninsured and go to the hospital for an illness there's a good chance you'll be wheeled right out to the parking lot and told good luck, but if you tell them that the illness is making you suicidal you'll hit the medical treatment jackpot.They can let you die from lack of care, but you try to do yourself in and they'll sell a wing of the hospital to fix you right on up..

I guess it depends on the situation. If there's an immediate danger to life, limb, or eyesight they'll treat you in the ER regardless of whether or not you can pay under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. It certainly doesn't mean you're off the hook for being billed after the fact if you do survive, but they will treat you. Long term illnesses however... yeah. Who wants to die by inches anyway?

[Baruch]

I guess it depends on the situation. If there's an immediate danger to life, limb, or eyesight they'll treat you in the ER regardless of whether or not you can pay under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. It certainly doesn't mean you're off the hook for being billed after the fact if you do survive, but they will treat you. Long term illnesses however... yeah. Who wants to die by inches anyway?

It was because of that Act ... that the door was open for the ACA.  The hospitals were eating too many costs on ER visits.

[widdershins]

There are states that have laws protecting parents who practice faith healing and don't get their kids treatment.
This is fucking insanity.

At a parent getting their child extracts from a marijuana plant which contain NO TCH, but help with pain, nausia and other symptoms, are thrown in jail for not simply letting the child suffer, even though the product contains no "drugs".

[Baruch]

At a parent getting their child extracts from a marijuana plant which contain NO TCH, but help with pain, nausia and other symptoms, are thrown in jail for not simply letting the child suffer, even though the product contains no "drugs".

To puritans, water is a drug.