OPINION:
As a Beirut-campaign combat veteran and Oklahoma City bombing rescue volunteer, I understand well the heavy emotional and financial toll that acts of terror take on victims and their loved ones. As an American, I was truly impressed and proud when, last summer, Orlando-area hospitals all immediately offered to self-cover medical-care costs for those attacked at the Pulse nightclub shootings. No violent-crime victim should ever need a Go Fund Me page or other public-provided donations collected for them in order to pay such bills.
In times like these, where gangs and terrorists both foreign-born and homegrown attack and kill many tens of thousands of Americans annually, it’s time for our multi-billion-dollar medical companies to step up. For them to bill any crime victim is not only greedy but also dispassionate. Just because most violent incidents, such as last week’s East Boston attack, which left two Boston police officers severely wounded, are not uniform-camera recorded, health-care providers should still foot the bill.
Hopefully this is the next step for a country that prides itself on world-leading evolution. This medical-care billing policy change shouldn’t require a rare bipartisan health-care-reform miracle from Washington.
AJ CASTILLA
East Boston, Mass.
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