Illegal Immigrant Allegedly Forced to Leave Hospital

[tater]

Originally Posted by Penguin

interesting aspect
bet she didn't know two important rules in life: never piss off a bartender and never piss off hospital staff

In general it is always good to be the "nice" patient in a medical office. Some subscribe to the "squeaky wheel" theory—and they do get treated, of course (and just as well as anyone else). They are hated by the staff and docs, however, and the staff will find ways to bump them to the end of the list for getting an appointment, and the docs will look for any excuse to "fire" them as patients.

My wife did a favor on call, and took a call from urgent care (a facility she is not on call for (she takes call only at the main hospital ER, not the UC facilities scattered around town). Was an 18 YO male with a 1mm stone. Not an emergency, she suggested pain meds while he passed the tiny stone. That was after 8pm at night. He gets an appt with her the next day at 2pm. That's amazingly fast given there are 1/2 the urologists in town that we need. She's booked weeks out for non-emergencies. The 18 YO's dad calls and starts yelling at the staff because they have to wait so long for an appt. he basically got the same day, and that's "too late" (she's on call, after all, so had emergency cases in the OR to take care of in the morning). The guy sis a big shot and is telling the scheduler he's a General. My wife's reaction is that she pays his salary, why does he think his rank means anything to her. The wimp (wife maintains young men are the least stoic patients by far, she said that there are 16YO girls giving birth with less whining than the guy with a 1mm stone) ended up not showing (wasting the time slot another patient would have liked to have had).

So you or your wife certainly can answer me this:
if her husband had a health insurance which covers his wife, would the hospital be required to treat her? Or would the insurance be void anyway, due to her illegal status?

SHe'd not know, frankly. She barely knows how the insurance works, much less legal status as it has nothing to do with how she treats patients. My guess is that an illegal is not covered by the insurance, regardless of marital status.