We are not immune from that here in the Pacific Northwest.

In fact, the number of people who have no health insurance is exploding -- and so is the number of doctors who won't treat them.

If you have health insurance, why should you care? Just look at what's happening in the emergency room at Harborview Medical Center.

20-year-old Hung Nguyen has just been in a car accident on I-5. At Harborver, the state's only Level One Trauma Center, he's in good hands.

Out in the waiting room, Olay is looking for help. He's homeless and sick.

"And I notice there's something wrong with my left paralyzed foot. It's starting to blow up like a balloon," he said.

Jim Briscoe is in with chest pain. He knows he can control it when he takes his medicine. Bu the costs of his medicine are staggering.

"I couldn't begin to tell you what (the cost) is," he said, "because I haven't been able to pay for them since I was prescribed them."

None of these patients has health insurance. And for decades, Harborview has been their safety net -- a net that must catch more people than ever before.

About 1/3 of the patients that come into Harborview's emergency department have no insurance. Another third are either on Medicare or Medicaid, but there's a new drain on this hospital's resources that threatens the very health of this institution.

Roger Curdy nearly lost his thumb when he tried to separate two fighting dogs. He is one of a growing number of patients other doctors and hospitals send here for care by a specialist.

"I went to the Navy Air Station Hospital (at) Whidbey Island and they took one look at it and said you better go to Harborview. So I got an ambulance ride down here," he said.

But Chris Martin with Harborview says over the last number of months, they have seen a lack of specialists willing to take patients that have no insurance.

Many hospitals and doctors work on such a thin margin, they say they can't afford to operate on all the people who can't pay.

Dr. Michael Copass has headed the emergency dept for 25 years. He says Harborview is stretched to the breaking point.

"Our concern is we don't want to say no, but we're having a harder time saying yes because our 'elasticity' is going away," Dr. Copass said. "Our ability to 'flex' is disappearing because we're full."

There comes a point, says Copass, when this emergency room will no longer be able to expand -- to add staff.

That's an enormous concern for other hospitals and the many patients who rely on Harborview.

"If we say no, where are these people going to get their care?" wondered Chris Martin.

Harborview's doctors say the problems have gotten worse since the state eliminated its "Medically Indigent" program in July. They say the legislature needs to reinstate catastrophic health coverage for the uninsured, or our hospitals could soon be in real trouble.