Editorial Says Emergency Department Overcrowding Needs To Be Addressed By Increasing Funding, Resources; Covering Uninsured

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 31 Oct 2008 - 10:00 PDT

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A recent study that calls into question the "widely held belief that uninsured people are clogging the nation's" emergency departments to receive no-cost care for minor ailments "leaves another troublesome implication: that many uninsured patients are simply going without needed care until they become so sick that they can't stay away," a New York Times editorial states. According to the editorial, "There are many causes of emergency room crowding," including ED closures, a shortage of primary care physicians, a "concomitant rise in the number of patients turning to emergency rooms and a shortage of inpatient beds into which the sickest patients can be moved." The editorial continues, "These problems need to be solved with an infusion of money and resources," adding that it also "remains critical to provide health coverage for some 45 million uninsured Americans." The editorial states, "The new study suggests that many of them may not 'just go to an emergency room' for the care they need" (New York Times, 10/30).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

© 2008 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation.  All rights reserved.

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