Not linked on Ron Paul’s Congressional Website.
HON. RON PAUL
OF TEXAS
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Thursday, March 12, 2009
2009 Ron Paul 30:1
Mr. PAUL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to
introduce the Treat Physicians Fairly Act, legislation
providing tax credits to physicians to
compensate for the costs of providing uncompensated
care. This legislation helps compensate
medical professionals for the costs
imposed on them by federal laws forcing doctors
to provide uncompensated medical care.
The legislation also provides a tax deduction
for hospitals who incur costs related to providing
uncompensated care.
2009 Ron Paul 30:2
Under the Emergency Medical Treatment
and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) physicians
who work in emergency rooms, as well as the
hospitals, are required to provide care without
seeking compensation to anyone who comes
into an emergency room. Thus, EMTALA
forces medical professionals and hospitals to
bear the entire cost of caring for the indigent.
According to the June 2/9, 2003 edition of AM
News, emergency physicians lose an average
of $138,000 per year because of EMTALA.
EMTALA also forces physicians and hospitals
to follow costly rules and regulations, and can
be fined $50,000 for failure to be in technical
compliance with EMTALA!
2009 Ron Paul 30:3
Forcing physicians to offer their services
without providing any form of compensation is
a blatant violation of the takings clause of the
Fifth Amendment. After all, the professional
skills with which one earns a living are a form
of property. Therefore, legislation, such as
EMTALA, which forces individuals to use their
professional skills without compensation is a
taking of private property. Regardless of
whether the federal government has the constitutional
authority to establish programs providing
free-or-reduced health care for the indignant,
the clear language of the takings
clause prevents Congress from placing the entire
burden of these programs on the medical
profession.
2009 Ron Paul 30:4
Ironically, the perceived need to force doctors
to provide medical care is itself the result
of prior government interventions into the
health care market. When I began practicing,
it was common for doctors to provide uncompensated
care as a matter of charity. However,
government laws and regulations inflating
the cost of medical services and imposing
unreasonable liability standards on medical
professionals even when they where acting in
a volunteer capacity made offering free care
cost prohibitive. At the same time, the increased
health care costs associated with the
government-facilitated over-reliance in third
party payments priced more and more people
out of the health care market. Thus, the government
responded to problems created by
their interventions by imposing EMTALA mandate
on physicians, in effect making the health
care profession scapegoats for the unintended
consequences of failed government health
care policies.
2009 Ron Paul 30:5
EMTALA itself is having unintended consequences
that could result in less care availability
for low-income Americans at emergency
rooms. This is because EMTALA provides a
disincentive for physicians from offering any
emergency care. Many physicians have told
me in my district that they are considering curtailing
their practices, in part because of the
costs associated with the EMTALA mandates.
Many other physicians are even counseling
younger people against entering the medical
profession because of the way the federal
government treats medical professionals! The
tax credit of the Treat Physicians Fairly Act
will help mitigate some of these unintended
consequences.
2009 Ron Paul 30:6
The Treat Physicians Fairly Act does not remove
any of EMTALA’s mandates; it simply
provides that physicians can receive a tax
credit for the costs of providing uncompensated
care. This is a small step toward restoring
fairness to the physicians. Furthermore, by
providing some compensation in the form of
tax credits, the Treat Physicians Fairly Act
helps remove the disincentives to remaining
active in the medical profession built into the
current EMTALA law. I hope my colleagues
will take the first step toward removing the unconstitutional
burden of providing uncompensated
care by cosponsoring the Treat Physicians
Fairly Act.
