Posted on 07/06/2019 2:17:50 PM PDT by ConservativeMind
By 2016, two years into the expansion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), 17.6 million previously uninsured people around the U.S. had gained health insurance coverage. But with the expansion, researchers at the University of Colorado Denver and the University of Kentucky found that ambulance dispatches for minor injuries like abrasions, minor burns and muscle sprains rose by a staggering 37% in New York City.
"Policymakers were operating under the assumption that the expansion was going to get people out of emergency rooms," says Andrew Friedson, PhD, assistant professor of economics at CU Denver. "Few people thought a larger enrollment would lead to a larger utilization of emergency care, because an emergency is an emergency. Insurance shouldn't make anything more of an emergency.
Dispatches to minor injuries jumped 37%
In the years before and after the ACA, dispatches to more severe injuries (such as chest pain, compound fractures and unconsciousness) remained relatively the same. But dispatches to minor injuries leapt 37.2%, from an average of 20.75 dispatches per dispatch zone per month before ACA to 28.46 in the years following. The increase is equivalent to approximately 239 additional dispatches a month -- or 2,868 per year -- for minor injuries.
"I was expecting to find an increase under 5%. The size of the association was surprising," says Friedson.
Ambulances are now cheaper than Uber
"Medicaid patients in particular have incredibly low out-of-pocket responsibility for ambulances," says Friedson. "The most an ambulance ride covered under Medicaid costs the patient three dollars. If there's a low-cost alternative to Uber to get the hospital, you're going to take it."
Health care policy needs better guardrails
"When the ACA was enacted, policymakers may not have had sufficient guardrails in place with regards to emergency care or ambulance utilization," says Friedson.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
How cheap does 0care make these rides? I’m guessing these were people who previously got Medicaid and we are now able to know just how goofed up it was with such persons.
End all welfare!
BFL
Illegals are covered at ER
That's why emergency rooms are filled with mexicans and gibs-me-dats. You might live in a community with only 10% mexican population, but if you were to judge by the contents of the overflowing emergency room, you'd think you were living in Mexico City.
Why bother driving to the emergency room for that fever if you can get a ride there for free.
Next...they will complain they are not getting a ride back.
Shortly after ObozoCare became law, an elderly couple averaged about one ambulance ride at night per month for each person.
The woman died after about 5 years of this. Her husband continued the tradition for a few years until he died.
After he died, I asked their son what the deal was. He said after going to bed for the night, their minds went into overdrive with mostly night fears and no real problems. So they would call for an ambulance. Their county health care program was so good they paid like $40 for the ambulance.
Of course, we tax payers paid for the EMT and the cop car that had to come after a 911 call. Towards the end, the EMTs were billing some organization.
I have worked in a few rural hospital ERs and this is common among Medicaid recipients. I call it “cabulance” rides. Common among the “homeless” in big cities too.
The libs will never figure out that if you want more of something all you have to do is subsidize it or make it “free”.
I used to work at a county hospital for 15 years.
There was a guy that lived within walking distance of the hospital and he was a frequent visitor of the bars downtown. After drinking his fill, he would call for an ambulance and be taken to the hospital where he would be seen by a physician and then discharged (no medical treatment necessary). He would verbally abuse the staff during his entire stay. This went on for a few years. I guess he either died, moved or ended up in prison.
The medical staff gets abused, other patients are put at risk and the tax payers are forced to pay for everything. The thing is, there’s no controlling legal authority to stop the process.
You posted: “The libs will never figure out that if you want more of something all you have to do is subsidize it or make it “free”.”
I think it’s just too simple a concept.
Then too, a lot of people don’t get the concept of “emergency.” Anything I want or need is, apparently, an “emergency.”
A lot of the “cabulance” rides involve someone who could easily go by private vehicle. Misuse of EMS endangers everyone in the community, particularly in small towns and rural areas. Some communities have one ambulance or one crew available at any one time. If that ambulance is tied up hauling the person who wants to go to the ER because she’s vomited twice, and someone else has chest pain, an anaphylactic reaction, or another true emergency, that person may have to wait an extra 15 or 20 minutes or more for help.
Daughter was hit by a POS a-hole. I am responsible for the ambulance service and ER bill. They hound me as the idiot walks free.
How cheap does 0care make these rides?
$750.00 my homeowner’s insurance paid half.
My gold plated health insurance paid half a million dollars for twenty hospital days and repair and therapy...nothing for the ambulance?
A minor complaint, the EMTs cut my $ spandex cycling outfit off. My daughter said they were very nice guys and washed the blood off the clothes and bike!
Also, they made a very jagged cut! Must have been in a hurry or something?
I do lots of sewing, no way could I make that repair!
Up until recently, going in on a stretcher got you directly into the treatment area. Now, they put you through triage, and if you aren't that bad, you go back to the waiting room.
Hospitals have also stopped feeding people in the ER, cause transients have a tendency to have "heart problems" at about 3:30, so they can get to the ER in time for dinner.
The people crashing the system don't care about anyone else, and they don't think far enough ahead to worry about what will happen when they crash the system.
I work for the big nationwide ems provider in a northeast city and the percentage of BS calls we get is staggering. It definitely got a lot worse when state medicaid was expanded under Obamacare. The claim that this would help alleviate ED overcrowding was disingenuous and reckless.
But but but...it’s affordable care right?
see...life is easy when everything is free...
another group that is abusive is the younger white trash....they're fat, slovenly, demanding and loud and obnoxious..I guess they feel that if blacks get away with it, so can they.....
sometimes I think I am the only one in America that stays home and doctors my own arthritis, my own cold, my own sinus "infections" and my own flu....and I live....
Just listened to the PeoplesPharmacy.com weekly audio show with a very experienced and respected Dr.
In NYC something happened to her with bleeding from head. When asked if they should call an ambulance, she said no, call a cab.
[ The show had to do with the bad shape medical things have fallen into, how it all started and what caused the current mess. She has a book.
In my area, virtually every ambulance call is to a “bed farm”. We’ve got at least ten of them in our township. Our ambulance service used to be volunteer (and competent). Our community could service our needs by our own volunteer service. Now, with all the entitled, spoiled, hypochondriac destitute on the welfare rolls, it is hopeless. Taxes are soaring, more bed farms are being built, unconscious bedridden (their relatives) are voting in the local elections, raising taxes to pay for more serves that attract more parasites....
We need a good famine wherein people are choosing to feed their children, or feeding the scum. Then some sense will come about. No more turning the cheek. Steal a loaf of bread, and you are dead, your family banished.
We need a “correction” (yes, a shining reference).
When my sister in law lived in our town (thank God she finally moved), the dollar amount of free medical care she got over about 6 years would have financed my and my wife’s retirement.
She would to go to ER, and regardless of why, she always said it was her heart to get her in ahead of those with real needs. It was just so utterly sickening.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.