Steve Tiffany sent me links to two articles (here and here) in The Gazette which describe recent deaths of patients in Quebec (Canada) emergency rooms, largely due to lack of care related to overcrowding. Most of the patients mentioned in the articles who died were over 65 years old. Steve pointed out that this speaks to the heightened vulnerability of older people. In this case, that vulnerability comes perhaps from age and health status as well as devaluation of elders, maybe even particular devaluation of certain types of emergency room patients.
Reading these articles also raises the issue of programmatic and non-programmatic factors; in other words, what is related directly to in this case medical care, and what is related to issues like funding, administration, etc.
The answer offered in the articles is more human services: more beds, more hospitals, and so on. That may be part of it but it is not an adequate response to social devaluation.