ER Docs Say Providing Basic Health Coverage to All Should Be Nations Top Health Care Priority

CAL/AAEM News Service calaaem_news at yahoo.com
Sun May 23 20:36:42 PDT 2004


ER Docs Say Providing Basic Health Coverage to All Should Be Nation’s Top Health Care
Priority

May, 20, 2004


Seventy-two percent of emergency physicians across the country say they treated more
uninsured patients this year than last, and 79 percent expect that trend to continue
during the coming year, according to a survey released last week by the American College
of Emergency Physicians (ACEP). Emergency doctors also overwhelmingly agree that the
uninsured patients they treat are more likely to delay care, suffer from illness, and put
their physical and financial health in jeopardy than are patients who have health
coverage. The poll surveyed nearly 2,000 emergency physicians nationwide. 

The societal impact the uninsured are having has become so critical that 57 percent of
emergency physicians said that providing basic health coverage to all Americans should be
the nation’s number one health care goal.

The survey was released last week as part of the second annual “Cover the Uninsured
Week,” a series of national and local events spotlighting the plight of the nearly 44
million Americans—including 8.5 million children—who lack health insurance.

According to the survey, the growing number of uninsured affects communities of all sizes
and in all areas of the country. Forty-two percent of the ER physicians surveyed work in
urban hospitals, 42 percent in suburban hospitals and 16 percent in rural hospitals. And
it takes a financial toll on the entire health care system, not just the uninsured.
Because people without health insurance tend to wait longer to seek treatment, they are
often sicker when they finally receive care. And when they do seek medical attention,
they frequently turn to the nearest hospital emergency room, an expensive and inefficient
way to get treatment. 

“While we treat and stabilize them in the emergency department, after they are released,
many are faced with the decision of whether to spend their money to fill a prescription,
follow a recommendation to see a specialist for follow-up care, or buy groceries that
week,” says J. Brian Hancock, M.D., an emergency physician in Saginaw, Mich., and ACEP
president. “That’s a choice that no one should be forced to make.”

For more information on this survey, go to http://www.calphys.org/html/bb582.asp. 


Source: CMA Alert 


=====
Cyrus Shahpar & Brian Potts 
Managing Editors, CAL/AAEM News Service 
UC-Irvine



	
		
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