I believe the EMTALA means a hospital can't deny you emergency treatment. Though what defines an emergency can be kind of murky. They could certainly evaluate most covid patients and send them home with Tylenol, or make them sit in their car while they let gunshot wounds in. I also think there is government money available for hospitals treating covid patients, so it is in the hospital's interest to not turn them away.

Some anecdotal evidence, I went through cancer treatment starting Feb 2020, ending Feb 2021, with a few scans since. Including one in a few days. I have never had any of my numerous appointments postponed for covid. But I think it is because I am lucky enough to afford to be treated by a hospital with a large cancer department.

I've asked my friends working in medicine the same thing. What if hospitals were to start turning away those who are willingly unvaccinated? I haven't been able to get a clear answer but the basic theme I hear is you can't, state law prohibits that. Of course the law can be changed, but what legislature is going to do that? This is where politics enters the fray. They'd rather kick the can down the road and bring in the National Guard to help run the hospitals than turn away patients and potentially face voter wrath.

For hospitals it's the federal EMTALA law which makes it illegal for hospitals to deny emergency care on the basis of vaccination status. If a patient shows up with unstable vital signs then the hospital is required to at least stabilize them. For COVID-19 patients that's usually based on respiratory distress or low blood oxygen saturation.

https://www.cms.gov/Regulations-and-Guidance/Legislation/EMT...

So, we essentially have mandates to "treat" with no corresponding agreement on defining any mandates to "prevent". Prevention mandates could be a tapestry of options and defined within specific contextual and cultural boundaries. But having nothing on the "prevent" tilts the scale entirely to obligatory treatment and clearly feels imbalanced.

I'm vaccinated and think everyone capable of receiving the vaccine should get it but turning people away is cruel. That's science-fiction dystopia cruelty in my opinion. Now if a hospital is full and at capacity maybe there are some calculations but just turning people away is wrong.

Note I wasn't suggesting turning people away if they're unvaccinated, I think that would be dehumanizing and would set a horrible precedent. I'm just wondering why pre-programmed surgeries and screenings are being deprogrammed when a Covid hospitalization spike is expected, as opposed to keeping all previously programmed appointments, and turning new Covid patients away when you hit full capacity (regardless of vaccination status, and obviously wouldn't include people who catch Covid at the hospital since they're already there) given the additional burden involved when dealing with Covid patients.

It's a really complicated issue. I've had a doctor friend explain it to me that one way to look at it is ignorance is a disease. The unvaccinated who have Covid now have two diseases they're fighting against. It's an interesting perspective.

Keeping with that perspective, those coming to the hospital with Covid that goes untreated are more likely to die in the next 30 days than those who come in with cancer that goes untreated. That's the calculus being played out. They're hoping to get through these waves and then get back to the patients who weren't facing as immediate a health threat.

What's really bothering my medical friends, and I suspect may be the source of so much burnout, is the prevalence of willful ignorance. They see it as a majority of the unvaccinated are people who should know better - that's what's making this so tough for them. They knew there would be cranks and crackpots who wouldn't get the vaccine because there always are. They weren't expecting it to be this prevalent and they certainly weren't expecting it to be politicized. The whole situation is demoralizing and causing people to reassess their life choices.

They were explicitly talking about the case of hospitals that are struggling with capacity issues.

Ah. My misunderstanding.

Most people don't die from covid, they die with covid and their multiple comorbidities. I think it would bring up multiple issues. I have many questions about the approach. Would you turn away someone who is asymptomatic but covid positive? What if they were turned away due to false positive covid test? What if they contracted covid from the hospital? What if they are vaccinated and still get covid?

I suspect it could easily lead to broader exemptions and eventually bring up the issue of other infectious diseases not being treated.

Pretty sure this is exactly what Switzerland has done a few times when the hospital situation was much worse for a short time last year.

My family also got several, none time critical yet time time intensive treatments over the past 2 years. There was no waiting because of COVID here.

Maybe also part of the reason it never turned out to be the healthcare catastrophe Americans some to live trough.

Edit:// not turning away, but giving less priority. Nobody gets or should be turned down. But when it comes to triangulation cancer may should win against a non vaccinated patient with low chance to survive.

Ethics.

Physicians take an oat to care for patients while looking past that.

At least in my area, I have heard of people being turned away from hospitals (where they are going due to covid symptoms) because of their vaccination status.