Due to the historically high unemployment rates the country has experienced since the Obama regime took power, the ER at my hospital (like most others across the country) has experienced a dramatic increase in volume. We are treating a lot of people who lost their health insurance coverage when they lost their jobs.
Because we don’t turn patients away, even when they can’t pay, the ER has become the primary care provider for a lot of unemployed patients. And the health care “reform” bill just passed by President Obama and his congressional co-conspirators will exacerbate the ER overcrowding problem.
Roughly half of the 34 million newly insured under Obamacare will get their coverage via Medicaid … Medicaid reimbursement rates for physicians are so low that many doctors simply refuse to accept Medicaid patients.
And this isn’t because the doctors are greedy. It is because Medicaid (and Medicare, BTW) pay less money for an office visit than it costs to see the patient. The doctor, quite literally, loses real money every time he sees a Medicaid patient. So, where will those patients go for care?
Based on previous experience, Medicaid expansion will … swell the ranks of those getting routine, non-urgent care through hospital emergency rooms.
What will happen to people who come to the ER for actual emergencies? Well, the good news is that all hospital ERs have triage nurses who make sure that truly urgent cases are moved to the front of the line. And, unless you go to a government-run facility, you probably won’t die in the waiting room.
But one of the primary justifications for passing Obamacare was that it was going to eliminate the need for people to get primary care in the ER. Because “everyone” would be “covered,” they would be able to go to a regular PCP. It was going to save the system money and improve everyone’s general health.
Just another Obama whopper, I guess.
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