[coffeecrazy1]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't hospitals private entities? Do they have to treat anybody? I know it seems like a dumb and callous question, but we are so used to thinking of hospitals like we do police and firemen...when there is a very definite distinction.

As such...bear in mind that moral obligation means very little to businesses in the strictest sense. Every business feels morally obligated to do certain things, but if pressed between moral obligation and survival, the grand majority choose survival, or they exit the market.

There's nothing particularly wrong with that, because many times that there is a moral obligation to do something, there is a business reason to do it, too(i.e. hospitals treat people off the street because they don't want to be labeled the hospital that doesn't treat people off the street).

But don't confuse a business' motivations for altruism...they are not.