I took his comment to mean just that: if you have an emergency, you can go to the emergency room without healthcare coverage. No one will be turned away. That’s all his statement could possibly have meant.
Via the Idaho Statesman:
In response to intense criticism over his suggestion Friday in Lewiston that “nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care,” Rep. Raúl Labrador on Saturday night said the comment “wasn’t very elegant” and was taken out of context.
“I was responding to a false notion that the Republican health care plan will cause people to die in the streets, which I completely reject,” Labrador said in a statement to the Statesman, which was also posted on his Facebook page.
Labrador said he had a lengthy exchange with the constituent “in which (he) explained to her that Obamacare has failed the vast majority of Americans.”
He said the media is focusing on “a five-second clip” in which he responded to the woman’s claims that he’s “mandating people on Medicaid accept dying,” by saying: “That line is so indefensible. Nobody dies because they don’t have access to health care.”
Prior to his Saturday night clarification, some on social media speculated that Labrador was referring to the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, a 1986 federal law that requires emergency departments to stabilize and treat anyone who comes into their facility, regardless of insurance status or ability to pay.
The congressman said that’s exactly what his statement meant.
“I was trying to explain that all hospitals are required by law to treat patients in need of emergency care regardless of their ability to pay and that the Republican plan does not change that,” he said in his release.
“It certainly doesn’t help that the media is only highlighting a five-second video, instead of the entire exchange,” he wrote, offering a link to a video of his discussion with the constituent.