ER care isn't medical care. It's emergency care. I couldn't, for instance, go into my local ER and get a check up, and get my bone density tested, or a full heart health workup. Emergency rooms stabilize people who require urgent care.

On the subject of the figures I used in the opening post... I was using 49 million uninsured because that's the figure I heard. Can't remember where, though. Here's the video with Colin Powell saying 48 million voters for McCain. I wasn't massaging the numbers, I was working with the numbers I had at my disposal at the time...

http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/politics/2008/11/05/colin.powell.reaction.cnn


On another thread somewhere (can't remember which one right now), I posted some figures about how the new bankruptcy laws have contributed (to a strikingly large extent) to the mortgage meltdown. As the numbers of the uninsured grow, people who face medical bills they can't afford are now unable to declare bankruptcy because of the punitive nature of the new bankruptcy laws. So they end up defaulting on their mortgages instead of going bankrupt (with a bankruptcy, most people can keep their homes).

It's certainly true that as long as there are people who are uninsured, everyone pays for it.