A number of presidents in the past have touched the possibility of health care reform and it was always dropped. Now as you hace said it will cast us even more without it than with it. Had it not have even started we would not have been worse for the wear. Why do we pay for people that use the er's for their doctors. I go to a doctor and they want payment for service that day. Why are hospitals any different. obamacare should have never been signed but now we have a mess and it will be with us forever. Not a well thought out plan. Or was it

I Think
 

I'm not absolutely certain, but I'm pretty sure that as a condition of their certification, hospitals are required to treat anyone visiting their emergency rooms.

The result, of course, is that the hospitals simply shift that cost to those with insurance by increasing their fees for the "paying patients". So, the insurance companies wind up paying for everyone, whether or not they have insurance, and reflect that in their premiums to those who pay them.

VK - it may vary from state to state but you're right. What hospitals WON'T tell you is that many will do a quick bit of treatment and then transfer a patient to another hospital. A process called 'dumping'. When I worked at Beth Israel Hospital, we got a lot of people 'dumped' at our place.

Rx
 

Wasn't that Michelle's job before becoming the flotus?

Beggars Can't Be Choosers
 

There is some evidence that the procedure for shifting uninsured or public aid patients to smaller, community hospitals was a part of Michelle Obama's job at the University of Chicago hospitals.

But that report raises an interesting question, I think. Should non-paying or uninsured patients have an equal right to the care provided by the top, most skilled and well-equipped healthcare providers and hospitals, or should they be directed "down the food chain" to other providers? So long as an emphasis is placed on operating the healthcare industry on a free market basis, this procedure seems to be completely appropriate.

Unlike socialized medicine where everyone is treated equally, our healthcare system--at least until ObamaCare--resulted in a large percentage of Americans having neither insurance or an ability to pay for the highest quality healthcare privately. So, should those with little or no ability to pay be permitted access to the best healthcare our country has to offer? I think maybe the old saying..."Beggars can't be choosers"...is pretty apropos in this instance.

Personally, I think such a system is almost irresponsibly cruel for a country as developed as the U.S. In fact, we're the ONLY developed country that has such a class-oriented healthcare system. Yet politically, a significant proportion of Americans want to keep it that way. So I guess the question remains...should beggars be permitted to be choosers?

ER visits and health care costs rise in Massachusetts due to lack of primary care access
in PHYSICIAN

Color me unsurprised.

A Boston Globe article today confirmed what has been discussed on this blog during the past year. Universal care without primary care access is a recipe to increase both emergency department crowding and health care spending.

We now have more data to back up this expected conclusion.

Despite an individual mandate covering almost everyone in Massachusetts, the cost of emergency care has risen 17 percent over the past two years, while ER visits rose 7 percent.

Stating the obvious, officials have concluded that, “emergency room crowding and rising costs will not be solved by providing people with health insurance alone,” and, what is needed “are more primary care doctors and nurses.”

It is very likely that whatever plan President Obama and Congress hammer out will look very similar to the Massachusetts approach, and I fully expect that the federal plan also will include an individual mandate, forcing everyone to purchase insurance.

And again, the results are going to be predictable. Without adequate primary care access, these newly insured patients will flood already crowded emergency rooms for care, further driving up spending and costs.

If you think what’s happening in Massachusetts, which by the way, has the highest density of physicians per capita in the country, is scary, replicating this scenario nationwide will be truly frightening."

In the end, "insurance" is not "healthcare".

ER visits and health care costs rise in Massachusetts due to lack of primary care access