The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act is a federal law that makes sure that patients receive emergency medical care regardless of their ability to pay. Imagine that a state writes a law that says that all individuals have to pay for their health care or they will not be treated. What would happen?

Federal law takes precedence over state law when the two conflict, under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. EMTALA requires covered hospitals to provide emergency screening and stabilizing treatment regardless of a patient’s ability to pay. A state law refusing care until payment would conflict with that requirement, so the state law would be overruled.

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