Fewer Emergency Rooms Available as Need Rises
18th May 2011
Hospital emergency rooms, particularly those serving the urban poor, are closing at an alarming rate even as emergency visits are rising, according to a report published on Tuesday.
Gee, maybe those two things are connected.
Emergency departments were most likely to have closed if they served large numbers of the poor, were at commercially operated hospitals, were in hospitals with skimpy profit margins or operated in highly competitive markets, the researchers found.
In other words, they can’t afford to provide free health care to people who can’t afford to pay. Duh.
The aim of the analysis was to figure out what characteristics make a hospital emergency department likely to close, Dr. Hsia said. Rural hospitals were excluded because some are designated “critical access hospitals” and operate under federal mandate.
Hint: The laws of economics work even when you don’t want them to.
Emergency rooms are required by law to provide treatment regardless of ability to pay. “People will have coverage, but there’s a concern that there will be nowhere for them to go,” Dr. Schneider said.
My, what a surprise. Aren’t you surprised? I’m sure surprised.
This entire article is like saying ‘Studies suggest that people who get hit in the head are much more likely to experience head pain than people who don’t.’ The phrase ‘thumb-sucker’ seems barely adequate.
May 19th, 2011 at 11:19
There is a story going around that some local kids kicked a ball over into the OBL compound. To keep the kids from trying to retrieve it, OBL’s guards gave them money for a new ball. After a few times of getting paid, kids from all over town brought their old balls over and knocked them into the compound so they could get new ones.
“Progressives” seem to think that they can legislate human nature to work the way they’d like it to be. There already IS a system and, left alone, it will work. Mess with it and you just create new problems to deal with.