Jonathon Feit

"I may be more sensitive to the reported details (or lack thereof) regarding the insurance controversy since I spent part of my career as a journalist (and another part in the White House), but an important fact is missing from the current discussion: what deserves to be called 'The Most Powerful Health Care Law You've Never Heard Of.'

"According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 'In 1986, Congress enacted the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) to ensure… Show more

"I may be more sensitive to the reported details (or lack thereof) regarding the insurance controversy since I spent part of my career as a journalist (and another part in the White House), but an important fact is missing from the current discussion: what deserves to be called 'The Most Powerful Health Care Law You've Never Heard Of.'

"According to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 'In 1986, Congress enacted the Emergency Medical Treatment & Labor Act (EMTALA) to ensure public access to emergency services regardless of ability to pay.' EMTALA is both powerful and ubiquitous: its text is displayed in almost every emergency department in the United States." Show less

As a subject matter expert on emergency medical technologies, I have a patriotic duty to point out correctible overstatements and oversimplifications in an announcement by the White House on July 9, 2013. If left uncorrected, these could undermine the Obama Administration’s objective to bolster the public’s senses of safety, security and comfort—especially as it simultaneously emphasizes the danger of man-made and natural disasters.

"Elderly people and veterans are among the chronically neglected when it comes to American medicine. We know who these people are, so why do they still die alone in their homes?

"Why do at-risk former warfighters go without potentially lifesaving mental healthcare? Why did an 87-year-old lady suffer a heart attack at a nursing home in Bakersfield, California — and even after she died, why was it unclear whether she wanted to be resuscitated?

"Why don’t we look up patients’… Show more

"Elderly people and veterans are among the chronically neglected when it comes to American medicine. We know who these people are, so why do they still die alone in their homes?

"Why do at-risk former warfighters go without potentially lifesaving mental healthcare? Why did an 87-year-old lady suffer a heart attack at a nursing home in Bakersfield, California — and even after she died, why was it unclear whether she wanted to be resuscitated?

"Why don’t we look up patients’ clinical details in the field, leveraging technology for insight about such basic decisions as whether or not to apply paddles to the chest or insert a breathing tube?" Show less

Publication pending...

Please see PAGE 14