# Modest Healthcare Proposal

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-healthcare-proposal/534806>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 3, 2010, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-healthcare-proposal/534806 "2010-04-03T05:23:51Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\
**Post date:** [April 10, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/modest-healthcare-proposal/534806/21 "2010-04-10T12:27:53Z")

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> [@Valgard](#):
>
> But a lot of folks aren’t in the ER because they got shot, they’re there because they didn’t have preventative care for much of their life so routine, treatable conditions (that would not require an ER) build up until they are really horrible, like life-threatening, and then the only recourse is to go to the ER.

I used to work for a hospital system, where I heard of Robinson’s Law. Robinson is (I think) Bill Robinson, former head of the American Hospital Association, and his law states ‘Any trauma center located more than three miles from a major highway will always lose money’. The reason being that less than three miles, most of your patients will be suffering from blunt-force trauma (car accidents) and will have some chance of having health insurance. More than three miles, and patients will tend to come in with penetrating trauma (gunshots and knife wounds), and they never have health insurance.

Regards,  
Shodan

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