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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (4617)	2/19/2008 12:55:36 PM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

I'm thinking some non-emergency cases would have to be turned away at the door to keep them out or ER's. Right now ERs can't legally turn anyone away. If we were to institute universal insurance, hopefully that would change and non-emergencies could be referred elsewhere. Overnight non-trauma emergencies would still go to the ER if there weren't 24 hour urgent care facilities available but, during the day, the ER could reasonably turn them away or triage them down to a service level that would discourage them. Insurance requires copays - an uninsured who goes to an ER and doesn't pay, doesn't pay anything. Hopefully any new system would regularize that. Sorry about your accident...

To: Brumar89 who wrote (4617)	2/19/2008 6:30:28 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

"Insurance requires copays - an uninsured who goes to an ER and doesn't pay, doesn't pay anything." Bingo!! The rest of us pay and it's a very very expensive way of dispensing medical care. Clinics would help and are well received where they are located. Most major cities have free clinics but not enough.... The families you saw were probably all of the kids and the mother......probably no father at home. Only one was probably sick.... Asthma attacks are epidemic in poor neighborhoods.

To: Brumar89 who wrote (4617)	2/19/2008 9:36:42 PM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

"I'm thinking some non-emergency cases would have to be turned away at the door to keep them out or ER's." There are only a few ways of reducing costs in a Socialized Medical system. You can provide less medical care. You can deliver less expensive medical care. You can ration medical care. Britain has begun rationing it according to many reports I have read. They also pay their doctors significantly less. Removing non critical patients from ERs is going to require more than just a shift in who is reimbursing for services. It will require changes in laws and or ethos. Right now there are many free medical clinics available to the people who choose to waste resources in ERs; often there are clinics available with odd hours in addition to standard hours. Some times it is their only option, but often they make a choice to not use more efficient care delivery systems. If the laws were tweaked just a little to allow ERs to decline care to non critical patients it might change costs in Hospitals. It appears to me at this time that is would lower medical expenditures.