I think the suggestion is that there are better ways to choose who bears the cost than &quot;a random selection of the sick people who walked through the door at roughly the same time&quot;, and also ways to house unwell but stable people at lower expense and with greater quality of life for them.

Yes, if we want to live in a society where hospitals don’t throw people out to die on the street because they’re not carrying an insurance card, then someone has to pay for it.

The hospitals usually bear the brunt of the costs and they are then distributed as higher costs to the paying patients.

Most people don&#x27;t have fingerprints on file, do they? I&#x27;ve been fingerprinted when I was working in a childcare setting and had to get a background check, but it&#x27;s not like everyone in the US has been fingerprinted.

Disclosing criminal justice data to third parties without a law enforcement purpose is a felony. Likewise, the hospital sharing your protected health information with the police is a civil liability and perhaps a criminal violation for the hospital employee.This is one of the reasons why people are very upset with the Palantir stuff at the federal level, joining IRS and Social Security data with other information. The data is basically all FTI and SS information now (which is secret&#x2F;protected) and many uses of it are crimes.I consulted on a criminal case years ago where local government people were criminally charged for aggregating child support (Tax data) and police data, and using it inappropriately.

This approach would likely be struck down as an unconstitutional pretext search violating the 4th Amendment and HIPAA patient protections.

The same right random, unidentified deadbeats ought to have to hoist their unpaid medical bills on the rest of civilized society.

Some states have stop and identify laws.These are unquestionably unconstitutional but that&#x27;s never fixed because the DA will never pursue charges.Without charges nobody can force the issue because nobody has standing.

What right do police have to ask random people to ID themselves in America?

Couldn’t the DA’s office help “facilitate” identification by having an officer ask the patient to ID themselves, “cite” them for not identifying themselves, allowing a fingerprint read, and then deciding to “not file” or drop the case? This seems like something that’s in the best interest of the patient and the hospital.

Strangers in the Middle of a City: The John and Jane Does of L.A. Medical Center