Pawlenty on emergency room care

It's a line that's making the rounds on the Web.

On Fox News Monday, Gov. Tim Pawlenty was asked about people without health insurance going to emergency rooms.

"One thing you could do is change the federal law so that not every ER is required to treat everybody who comes in door even if they have a minor condition. They should be --If you have a minor condition, rather than being at the really expensive ER, you should be at the primary care clinic," Pawlenty said.

"Okay. Okay. But you come in with chest pains, and like, you get horrible chest pains. Now, it could be indigestion, which is minor, or it could be heart, which isn't minor," said Fox's Greta Von Sursteren.

"You have to do a little triage. That's for sure," Pawlenty said.

The interpretation, from the Hill, blasted around social media: "Pawlenty: Let ER's turn away patients to cut costs."

On Wednesday, Pawlenty said his proposal is not that extreme.

"That was in reference to the current federal law that requires emergency rooms to treat everybody. I'm not saying they shouldn't treat everybody but if it's determined that they have a more minor, you know, episode they could be referred then to a primary care clinic," Pawlenty told Minnesota reporters.

"I think you have to make a determination of the nature of their injury or their condition and then make the decision for that," Pawlenty said.

The governor's spokesman Brian McClung said that some hospitals in Minnesota already do that, if they have an adjacent primary care clinic.

"Yeah, some do that already," Pawlenty said. "I think it would just be good practice that if somebody has a more minor conditions that where possible that they get treated in less costly environments rather than the most costly."

"And who determines minor then," a reporter asked.

"The doctor," Pawlenty said. "The doctors and the medical professionals would have to make that determination."