ObamaCare Adds Chaos to Emergency Rooms

It seems that the best examples that we have to help understand what will transpire with the new health care bill are totally absent from reality. These examples, Massachusetts, Hawaii and Tennessee's 'Tencare', have proved that a system that is totally free of responsibility for one's own health care will not work. And yet our leaders continue down the same path of all of these failed programs.

Again, why is this so clear to me and many others but totally lost on virtually all liberal Democrats in and out of public service, and the president. Is this their intent? Comprehension of this is very difficult.

Luckily, much of the general public is slowly coming to recognize what we are headed for and are taking action to prevent this catastrophic event. The people demanding accountability.


HEALTH REFORM THREATENS TO CRAM ALREADY OVERWHELMED EMERGENCY ROOMS
Source: Jay Heflin, "Health reform threatens to cram already overwhelmed emergency rooms," The Hill, May 15, 2010.

A chief aim of the new health care law was to take the pressure off emergency rooms by mandating that people have insurance coverage. The idea was that if people have insurance, they will go to a doctor rather than putting off care until they faced an emergency.

However, the new health care law will pack 32 million newly insured people into emergency rooms already crammed beyond capacity, according to experts on health care facilities. People who build hospitals say the newly insured people will still go to emergency rooms for primary care because they don't have a doctor.

Some Democrats agree with this assessment. Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.) suspects the fallout that occurred in Massachusetts' emergency rooms could happen nationwide after health reform kicks in:

In 2006 Massachusetts created near-universal coverage for residents, which was supposed to ease the traffic in hospital emergency rooms. But a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians found that nearly two-thirds of the state's residents say emergency department wait times have either increased or remained the same.

A February 2010 report by The Council of State Governments found that wait times had not abated since the law took effect. "That is not an unrealistic question about what's going to happen in the next four years as you bring all these people on; who are they going to see?" McDermott said.

Richard Foster, Chief Actuary at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told The Hill that the current dearth of primary care physicians could lead to greater stress on hospital emergency rooms.

The Academy of Architecture for Health predicts hospitals will need at least $2 trillion over the next 20 years to meet the coming demand.