The irony is that the ER law was passed during the Reagan Administration as part of COBRA.
As I recall, although dumping was going on across the country, the case of a emergency room patient at one California hospital being transported to, and dumped in front of, another hospital in a poorer neighborhood made the National news. It later emerged that the patient was also a US veteran.
Since Reagan at the time had been bashing the USSR for having different standards of medical care for the members of the Politburo vs the average citizen, the USSR made the most of this propaganda victory.
As a result, Reagan supported the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) - the law saying ERs can’t turn away emergency patients because they can’t afford their care.