Reply #11: This could be a major obstacle, but..... [View All]

[hyphenate]

there are still ways to get around the situation.

Nowadays, there is a law that precludes hospital emergency rooms from rejecting any patient regardless of ability to pay. Most hospitals have funds to allow for such circumstances. Once a patient is stabilized, however, the hospital can release them.

In order to get my driver's license back, I needed my social security card, and couldn't find it. The guy at the DMV told me to go to the SS office, and they could issue me a note on letterhead to give to the DMV to prove my SS#. I eventually found my card, but this is a workaround that can be used for this one document.

As far as birth certificates are concerned, all birth records are usually archived in a central department at a state capital. For a certified copy, there is a fee (here in Massachusetts, it's $12) for the document, but that isn't a whole lot in the long run. This is also available online, for people who are unable to get to the records department. If someone complains that they can't get a copy of their birth certificate and uses the excuse that they don't have a computer or are unable to get to the records otherwise, I say, tough! Most elderly folks have a caregiver who can do the work for them online, and if there is no computer at home, every library has computers for internet use.

I agree that there are some people who would be disadvantaged because of this law, but I personally believe that there needs to be some point where we need to stop and let people assume responsibility over their own lives. Sure, we could keep handing people everything without some kind of effort, but giving them a free ride, rather than giving them incentive to do something for themselves, isn't the answer. I've been to the bottom, and I agree that some people fall through the cracks, but I also see where there is too much handed out and not enough of an effort to help without trapping people in dead-end circumstances. After 18 in a normal family, the parents must give their children wings to fly from the nest, and so, too, our government needs to get the populace out of living in the basement and out on their own. How adult are we if we insist on being so dependent that we can't find our way out of this trap?