Posted on 06/17/2009 11:16:48 AM PDT by Baladas
A recent study by the Integrated Care Collaboration (ICC) of emergency room visits in Central Texas discovered that, over the past six years, nine individuals have made 2,678 ER visits to local hospitals, at a cost of $3 million. One of these people visited 145 times last year and 554 times in the past five years.
Reading these stats reinforces my conviction that any unified national health care program will have to include that ugly word, rationing. Nine people should not be able to run up a $3 million tab when so many others lack basic services such as vaccines and prenatal care.
These nine are the poster people for wretched excess, but the problem of people using the ER as a clinic for non-emergency complaints is widespread. According to a CDC study, of the 119.2 million ER visits in 2006, only 15.9 million could be classified as true emergencies. A staggering 11 percent of all non-emergency medical care visits in the U.S. now take place in the ER rather than doctor's offices or clinics.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailyfinance.com ...
I’ve got a question: Nine people, or nine identities?
This does not pass the smell test!
It’s illegal to file frivolous lawsuits. Should it be illegal for frivolous emergency room visits?
Bad facts make bad law.
Whatever. If they can pay the bill, this guy has no business to be suggesting rationing.
If I want to spend my money on 500 ER visits, and not on vaccines for “the needy”, its my beeswax, and not some columnists!
I think the old soviet union had a pretty good model.
What did the local ER’s actually DO about the repeat “customers” - OTHER than charge the taxpayers for the “er” (er, error) visits that they KNEW were fraudulent?
See - that 3 million wasn't actually SPENT on these nine patients, it was “spent” (er, sent) to the ER admitting them.
She also said that some of the volunteers guit b/c of it.
>>I’ve got a question: Nine people, or nine identities?<<
That is exactly what I was thinking. :)
Thanks to EMTALA, there's not a lot they can do.
No, they weren't illegals. You have to be born here to be that entitled.
$100 copay would help.
145 times last year, loneliness?
It’s illegal to call 911 for a non-emergency, as well.
If you go into the emergency room with something that is a non-emergency, you should at the least, have to wait 6 hours to see a doctor.
That should cut down on the frivolous visits.
Sure... they paid their bills....
and sure.... they weren’t illegal aliens.
Under Obamacare, rationing will be law. :)
Nine people - all nuts, tho this article only says 7. Not buying it.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/01/0401er.html
Here’s an excerpt:
“The report that mentioned the nine high-frequency patients didn’t include reasons for all of those ER visits and didn’t identify the patients because of privacy laws. But Kitchen, a former state legislator from Austin, gave a sketch: All nine speak English; three are homeless; five are women whose average age is 40, and four are men whose average age is 50. Seven have a mental health diagnosis and eight have a drug abuse diagnosis. Kitchen said she did not know their citizenship status.”
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