The Unfunded Mandate is a legal contradiction and humanitarian nightmare that is also anti-business. It needs a permanent fix, not a modification, adjustment, reconciliation, and most definitely not Washington style “reform.” What is the Unfunded Mandate? In 1986, Congress passed EMTALA (Emergency Medical Transport and Active Labor Act), colloquially called the anti-dumping law. Its ostensible purpose was to prevent one hospital from “dumping” (transferring without medical justification) a critically ill patient or women in labor to another hospital because the patient has no money or insurance. Dumping would allow the first hospital to avoid paying the costs of very expensive care for which it will get no payment. EMTALA created a new class of patients called the Unfunded Mandate. These patients receive very expensive care for which neither hospital nor providers will be paid. Of course they -- institution and physicians -- must still pay their own...(Read Full Article)