Does it really save the taxpayer money to pay for health care from the ER?

When indigent patients come to the ER for general health care, it is the doctors, nurses and hospital, as well as other services such as the lab, medications... that pay. In the long run, it is the insured that pay, because prices of health care will rise to cover the charity costs. Some of the monies can be written off of the taxes of the hospitals, but, that leaves a lot left over for the insured to cover.

Your statement that "Hospitals have to get payment whether the patient can pay or not" is in error. In California, many of our hospitals have gone bankrupt and closed their doors, especially those near the border, because they had to treat anyone who came to them. They lose millions of dollars a year because of unreimbursed care. People with insurance pay more, but that can't make up for the tremendous financial drain of the uninsured and the non-citizens. This penalizes our citizens, who often have to travel further to get health care after the local hospitals close.

Our counties have health care clinics that uninsured people can go to, where they accept Medi-Aid and Medicare, as well as a sliding-scale fee where people can pay according to what they can afford. Generally, there is no need for anyone to go to the ER for routine care.

It saves more than it would to give substandard insurance to the masses and illegal aliens.