The AP Style Book evidently requires any piece of journalism about health care to use the word “uninsured” in close juxtaposition with an implicit suggestion that millions of Americans are effectively barred from medical treatment. Otherwise, it is difficult to explain the lockstep consistency with which journalists and pundits adhere to this formula.
The general effect of this journalistic phenomenon is to perpetuate a pair of myths about patients with no medical insurance: that they have no access to health care and that they have no access to coverage.
As to care, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) requires all hospitals to treat all patients who seek treatment in their emergency rooms–regardless of ability to pay. In fact, it is a standard practice of American hospitals to triage ER patients before asking any question about insurance or any other non-medical issue.
Regarding access to coverage, more than 30 percent of the uninsured are already eligible for government-subsidized coverage, and another third have incomes exceeding $50,000 per year. In other words, about two-thirds of the “uninsured” have made the choice not to carry insurance.
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