Health care: Hospital lawsuit points to larger problems

Re: “States sues Tacoma’s St. Joseph Medical Center, saying it illegally withheld charity care,” (TNT, 9/5).

If the allegations are correct, this is a violation of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, which requires hospitals to provide notice of charity care availability and to screen patients for eligibility.

If we cannot trust a Catholic nonprofit health organization to care for those who are unable to afford health care, who can we trust?

In Washington we have Medicaid and Apple Health that help provide health care for those needing financial assistance, but they don’t seem to solve the whole problem.

This situation shows the need for everyone having health care coverage and no one being left out. I think we need to change to a system with one form of health coverage, like Medicare for All or another type of universal coverage.

This story was originally published September 18, 2017 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Health care: Hospital lawsuit points to larger problems."