Today’s "ER in crisis" story

Pathetic is right:

Dr. Peter Viccellio, the head of the emergency department at Stony Brook University Hospital on New York’s Long Island, said many doctors refuse to perform surgery on the uninsured or those covered by Medicaid because they are so poorly reimbursed.

“A lot of people show up because they have conditions that are treatable, but in many cases no one will treat them beyond giving them some pain relief because they have no money,” said Vicellio, a 27-year ER veteran whose department treats 75,000 people a year. “I see lives destroyed because of the inadequacies of our hodgepodge system. It’s pathetic.”

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