[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 111 (Thursday, August 11, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 11, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
   WE CANNOT AFFORD TO ALLOW EMERGENCY ROOMS TO BE MISUSED AS CLINICS

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                        HON. FORTNEY PETE STARK

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, August 11, 1994

  Mr. STARK. Mr. Speaker, most of our mail these days seems to be 
preprinted mailgrams or one sentence postcards--and that makes it 
doubly wonderful when one receives a thoughtful, sensitive letter.
  Following is a great letter I've just received from a man in San 
Jose--an eloquent, moving call for health care reform:

       In 1985 my wife drove me to a local hospital. I had 
     symptoms of coronary distress. She parked at the entrance of 
     the emergency room and found a wheel chair. She wheeled me 
     into the bedlam of an emergency room. It was filled with the 
     sight, sound and smells of children and adults too poor to 
     visit a doctors office: those addicted to alcohol and drugs, 
     victims of domestic abuse, the homeless. Those on the edge, 
     are drawn to emergency rooms like moths to the light.
       The heart team assembled quickly. Within minutes, I was 
     hooked up to an EKG device and breathing oxygen. Soon I was 
     feeling better. So much better that I convinced myself, and 
     was trying to convince those attending that it was a false 
     alarm. Suddenly several of the staff rushed at me. Startled I 
     asked what was wrong. I was told my heart had stopped. The 
     surprise restored that vital function.
       Saying heart attack, and displaying insurance documents may 
     have influenced the rapid response my problem received.
       The appalling way the emergency room was being used by 
     those without alternatives, has stayed with me long after I 
     was discharged. After reacting to the misery of the 
     situation, I began to calculate the wasteful expense of using 
     a million dollar facility, and millions of dollars to talent, 
     to deliver ordinary everyday health care. The equivalent of a 
     DOD $120.00 hammer.
       We can afford to deliver universal health care, because the 
     alternative is too expensive.
       We cannot afford to allow emergency rooms to be misused as 
     clinics.
       We cannot afford to alienate the poor, the homeless, the 
     minority, the immigrants by denying them access to a decent 
     life. Without hope they become wards of the courts and the 
     penal system, and its billion dollar, non-refundable price 
     tag.
       We cannot afford an economy with runaway medical expense 
     that grows larger every year, even while the infrastructure 
     is folding in on itself.
       With your support this country can become a better place to 
     live. None of the legislation before the Congress seems 
     perfect, but no one in that body claims perfection.

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