This community is thinking of a tax to pay for on-call specialists to cover the ER. How has it come down to this? One reason is a possible illegal immigrant malpractice scam – that’s the first I’ve heard of this:

Doctors are tired of answering calls to care for indigent or Medicaid patients for which they will receive only token payment, if any, only to expose themselves to a malpractice lawsuit a year later by a patient who ignored the follow-up medical instructions and then encountered complications. The problem is exacerbated by a high caseload of illegal immigrants, who may return to their native country and be recruited by a growing litigation industry able to reach across international borders to ensnare American doctors in phony malpractice suits.