Oh, I wouldn't be arguing with the ER doctor. I'd be arguing with the billing murderers, like the one that comes in to shake you down for money while in the ER bed.
Even with identification, healthcare systems usually will not do more than they're required to under EMTALA. The hospital will provide intensive care to the uninsured DKA patient, since they're obligated to do so under EMTALA, but they will not provide that patient the insulin and other care necessary to prevent them from needing ICU in the first place, since it's not yet an emergent condition.
If there's no risk of criminal exposure, even insured people should start doing this. Hitting hospitals with uncompensated care under EMTALA is one of the few points of leverage we have to fight back against these murderers. Hospitals are, by and large, not innocent parties in this -- several hospital groups are even members of the Partnership for America's Health Care Future terrorist group, which bribes politicians to fight Medicare for All.
It would bring me great pleasure to get to tell a hospital to go fuck themselves and to quit bribing politicians to fight M4A if they want to get paid next time.
I'm aware of that. That's different from refusing to identify yourself to avoid paying money to the healthcare racket.
The discussion here is whether there is a legal obligation to identify yourself. If there is such a requirement, it would apply to someone who is fully capacitated but refusing to identify themselves. It would not apply to someone who is unable to identify themselves due to incapacity, because such a person obviously lacks any criminal intent.
Yes, that's my understanding. So wouldn't refusing to identify yourself be an effective way to avoid a bill, without the criminal exposure of giving a fake name or ID?
I've often wondered what would happen if you went to the ER, carried no identifying documents, and just refused to identify yourself. Just hope nobody recognizes you there.
Giving a fake name is fraud, and people have been arrested for doing that at the ER. (Fuck America.) But I don't know that there's any legal obligation to give any name at all. If you don't give them a name, you're not lying to them, and oops, looks like they don't have a way to bill you. As you note, hospitals are legally required to provide emergency stabilization without regard to ability to pay.
I suppose the hospital could try to call the police, but AFAIK the police cannot compel you to identify yourself without reasonable suspicion that you have committed a crime.