Study: Uninsured don't go to the ER more than insured

Source: USA Today

-----

The aim of "Emergency Department Visitors and Visits: Who Used the Emergency Room in 2007?" was to determine the types of visitors who use hospital ERs.

The results may surprise some who believe that ERs mainly serve uninsured people, says second author Amy Bernstein, chief of the Analytic Studies Branch in the Office of Analysis and Epidemiology for the CDC and the National Center for Health Statistics.

"We were trying to show characteristics of people who use the ER. There are some perceptions. ... A lot of people think it's predominantly used by uninsured people because they don't have a normal source of primary care, but this particular brief shows this is not the case," Bernstein says.

-----

•ER visits by the uninsured were no more likely to be triaged as non-urgent than visits by privately insured patients or those with Medicaid coverage.

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2010-05-20-emergency20_st_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

to frequent except as a possible last resort. I'm looking at over $5000 a pop for 3 ER visits in the last 4 months for a gallbladder that finally blew (uninsured GB - ER won't remove till it ruptures, so the 2 trips @ +$5000ea were only for antibiotics & pain meds). Still haven't gotten the surgical bill, but I'm sure it'll take the rest of my life to pay off! If it had been removed on 1st ER visit (like the doc said it should have & would have been, had I had insurance) that extra +$10,000 could have been avoided.

Anyone that thinks uninsured people run up that kinda debt need to get their heads checked ... preferably at their local ER, w/no insurance!

I got diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2001 four weeks after I left my job with benefits. I had taken a temp job that paid real well but did not offer insurance. I was only going to be working there for 4 months before going back to school in the fall. I had a huge tumor and dozens of tiny tumors inside my bladder. After 2 surgeries in two months then 18 months of "treatments" I had racked up almost $50,000 dollars in medical bills. I signed paper work that I promised to pay at least $20 dollars a month to the hospital, the Urology clinic, the anesthesiologist, and a lab. Some months I paid the minimum and other months a paid a lot more. After I got married, my wife and I cut expenses to the bone. We paid the last medical bill off in the fall of 2009. I did have a $140 bill go to collections because I had not updated my address with one of the labs. Keep you chin up and know that amount of money is small if you spread it out over a decade. Some of your charges could have been avoided, but people do what they need to do to stay alive. In a way I am glad I did not have to deal with some POS insurance company. I also think about what I could have done with all that money. But I am alive now, have great insurance and could not put a price on the value of my current good health.

missing work after spending the night rolling on the floor! It's worth it. Now to rebuild my client list (not everyone could wait till I took care of it) & get on w/living (I can eat again - YAY!).

I just get irritated at the piffle that people like us use ERs as a routine doctor's office visit. No one runs up that kinda debt unless it's last resort or they're outta their minds!

And bladder cancer? Gallbladder is child's play compared to that! Continued good health to you & props on the positive outlook!

Pretty clear that one issue drives people to ERs for non-urgent care: lack of timely access to PCPs (and in the case of Medicaid-insured people, lack of access to PCPs because so few will accept them as patients.)

Both of these issues could be addressed through a sufficient network of community health centers staffed into the evenings and all day Saturday and Sunday.

And they'll tell you to go to the emergency room. Like, you're out of medication and the pharmacy is closed, go to the emergency room, or you feel a strange new pain under your cast. The doctor is out.

The difference is, the uninsured aren't advised to go in for these reasons. They don't go in for these reasons, and they don't call the doctor's office first to get told to go in.