Posted on 01/02/2014 12:28:53 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Supporters of President Obama’s health care law had predicted that expanding insurance coverage for the poor would reduce costly emergency room visits as people sought care from primary care doctors. But a rigorous new study conducted in Oregon has flipped that assumption on its head, finding that the newly insured actually went to the emergency room more often.
The study, published in the journal Science, compared thousands of low-income people in the Portland area who were randomly selected in a 2008 lottery to get Medicaid coverage with people who entered the lottery but remained uninsured. Those who gained coverage made 40 percent more visits to the emergency room than their uninsured counterparts. The pattern was so strong that it held true across most demographic groups, times of day, and types of visits, including for conditions that were treatable in primary care settings.
The finding casts doubt on the hope that expanded insurance coverage will help rein in rising emergency room costs just as more than two million people are gaining coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
That TITLE!
I am sure she meant ‘Lack of’ Health Care, but The Times can’t take the failure of this Zelig of a president whom they propped up and continue to prop up
Hopefully you’ll have a few minutes to read this entire article.
Paging Captain Obvious. That said, the percentage is worth researching, though the trajectory should be obvious.
Since ObamaCare means less access to doctors in reality of course there will be more ER cases.
Was there ever any doubt! NOW the ER will be paid for all middle class
higher premiums and deductibles! Whole healthcare system turned on it’s
head for EVERYONE to achieve NOTHING! ALL ABOUT
GOVERNMENT CONTROL! We can not fix stupid!
They mean FREE GOVERNMENT health care. Everyone has access to health care.
Because ERs must see you the day you show up. Doctors make you wait for days or weeks for an appointment.
I'd think so. If someone is actually sick, doctors won't have appointments available right away, so that will result in an ER visit.
What they'll find is that access to healthcare doesn't make sick people or those with bad habits healthier, it makes them more medicated. JMHO
Captain Obvious, the world’s busiest superhero in this day and age.
The comments have started coming in on this NYT’s piece.
A bigger bunch of excuses I’ve never seen.
Yep, was listening to Conservative talk radio on the way home from shopping just now. The discussion being how many people whom had Ins. two days ago, now don't. And immediately I thought about Emergency Rooms filling up even more than usual. I'm sure the Obunga regime is already figuring out how to skew the Emergency Room numbers for 2014.
Face it, many people do not understand health insurance and how it works. They pay no attention to the rules. They will do what they always have done and the only thing they are used to. That would be showing up at the emergency room for a cold or a cough. They will figure their medicaid or new health insurance will pay the whole thing.
When I was an employer, there were employees who had great insurance but had no idea how to use it. You could sit down and explain it to them and it would go in one ear and out the other. They did what I was saying in the first paragraph of this post.
By the way, these are the same people who think an ambulance ride is totally free and get pissed off if there is any fee.
Oregon’s medicaid had a co-pay for doctor visits, but not for emergency care.
So get the baby’s ear infection treated for “free” at the E room or pay a $20 co-pay at the doctors.
It doesn’t require much brain capacity to realize that the copay for emergency care should be at least double the standard co-pay.
Those with health insurance won’t go to the ER more, but the leeches on medicaid will.
The difference is they pay zero in co-pays no matter where they go.
The federal EMTALA law prohibits hospitals from charging for ER care if one’s life is in danger. One cannot be denied treatment simply due to inability to pay.
It would seem that Obama’s experiment with our health care system to insure the uninsured [because he cares and knows better than anyone else] has flopped horribly.
The only thing that has changed is that millions of people (with more on the way) who had health insurance they could afford, doctors they wanted and hospitals they needed, don’t have that any more .
These people will all go to the neighborhood emergency care units and ruin that. There are normally only 2 or 3 people....not like the 100 you find in the emergency room.
The are NOT prohibited from charging for E care. Only from denying care based on ability to pay.
And non emergency care isn’t covered. They can screen and turn them away, but the don’t because they can bill medicaid emergency rates for an ear exam, baby tylenol and amoxycillin.
Or, you have the flu, drink gaterade, take ibuprofen and sleep a lot... next!
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