Can a hospital legally refuse to save the life of a foreign tourist if he can't afford the medical bill?

they cannot refuse life saving medical treatment to any one. however they still charge you even if you can't afford it. the bill will go to collections eventually and it'll impact your credit rating and you will be liable for it. I don't know what effect this would have on a foriegn tourist some don't have crdit cards in thier country anyway so it matters little but the bill still exists and you're still responsible for even if you remain in default forever.

What Teekno said. Furthermore, citizenship is not the sole criterion for determining one's rights under U.S. law. The 14th Amendment provides Equal Protection under the law for ANY person within the jurisdiction of U.S. law.

U.S. hospitals have to stable a patient no matter what. After they are stable they can refuse doing anything extra like a surgery if not needed to be stable and such. Make sure your going to a county hospital and not a private one as they will do more than private ones.

Yes they will do everything to save their life. It does not matter who or where they are from. If they cannot pay upon time to leave the hospital, they may do what hospitals do and that is say" You cannot be discharged until we receive X amount of dollars towards your bill" But that person just can leave and they cannot stop them. If they try it is "False Imprisonment". They will just bill you or whoever at their home address. They try the You can't leave story and they watch people scramble on the phone to get money but legally they cannot hold anyone there for an extra minute longer then it takes to get checked out. It's "Got no money, bill me, see you later, stop me and I'll call the cops" I have had these calls before.

they have to treat him and if that means by surgery then they by law have to do the surgery, even if he does not have the money to pay for it. before leaving the hospital though he would have to talk to the billing department and set up pay arrangements or fill out a form showing that he cannot pay his bill. but no hospital in the USA can refuse to treat him no matter what.

All i know is they have to save a human life no whatever what, they are obligated too, as decent human living beings...No matter how corrupt the hospital business has gotten...

I'm not sure about what happens with number 2 as I am not a lawyer. I can say that a hospital would have to at least stabilize the patient. In most cases, in that situation, they would do whatever they could to make sure he was going to live without even considering how and if they they will be paid. If hospitals went through all the paperwork before letting someone in then more people would be dying in serious accidents.

they are required to try to save someones life no matter what the situation is