Flashback To Bush in '07 -- Romney: Uninsured have emergency rooms

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Dan Froomkin ‏@froomkin
Flashback 2 Bush in '07: "People have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room."
http://bit.ly/SgmlSj

related:

Romney calls emergency room a health-care option for uninsured

In his interview with CBS News’ “60 Minutes” aired Sunday night, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney pointed to emergency rooms as a form of health care for people without insurance.

“Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance,” Romney told interviewer Scott Pelley. “If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.”

When Pelley pointed out that the ER is the most expensive form of health-care, Romney argued that he was talking about a variety of options that vary by state.

“Some provide that care through clinics, some provide that care through emergency rooms,” he said. In Massachusetts, Romney said, they had come up with a different solution — but he wouldn’t push universal care on other states

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read/watch: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/election-2012/wp/2012/09/24/romney-calls-emergency-room-a-health-care-option-for-uninsured/

[justiceischeap]

1. Which is, as we already know, why healthcare costs are skyrocketing. nt

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4. right, justiceischeap

. . . not exactly a new finding.


Emergency Rooms: Last Stop for the Poor | Reporting on Health

October 06, 2009

Between 2001 and 2006, the number of visits paid to emergency rooms in the United States increased annually by nearly 12 million, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report released in April 2009. In addition, the average time ER patients waited before being seen by a physician rose from 46 minutes in 2003 to 56 minutes in 2006. Although fewer hospitals reported having to divert ambulances to other facilities because of overcrowding, those that did reported spending more hours on average on diversion. Overcrowding in emergency departments is attributed to a shortage of critical care inpatient beds, delaying the transfer of stabilized emergency patients to non-emergency units.

The federal Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), passed by Congress in 1986, contributed to the growing pressure on emergency rooms by requiring every hospital participating in the federal Medicare and Medicaid programs (virtually all) to screen and stabilize any person who seeks help, regardless of his ability to pay. Because the government didn't provide funding for this mandate, many ERs have a problem with uncompensated care. The poor, the elderly and people with chronic conditions are the heaviest users of ERs. But ERs also help fill regular hospital beds and contribute to some hospitals' profitability. In 2006, half of all non-obstetric hospital admissions came through the emergency department.

Updated February 2010
http://www.reportingonhealth.org/resources/topics/emergency-rooms-last-stop-poor


The ACA included new funding to support the construction of and expand services at community health centers, allowing these centers to serve some 20 million new patients across the country. Effective 2010.

. . . the community health center model of care has been shown to reduce the use of costlier providers of care, such as emergency departments (EDs) and hospitals . . .

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Clever how he changed the subject of "insurance" to one of "treatment".

Guess the interviewer did not bother to follow thru with obvious question?

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8. good catch, dixiegrrrrl

. . . he's never related just what he'd do for the individuals impacted by his proposed repeal of Obamacare. For Romney and his campaign, health care/insurance is now just a foil to attack the President.

[area51]

3. Rmoney to decent Americans:

"Let them eat cake."

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6. that's exactly the tone, area51

. . . and the substance, as well.

This is a man who has never personally wanted for decent health care; or, for that matter, personally known anyone wanting for decent health care. Such arrogance from the bubble man. He's more than perfectly satisfied with folks stuck in place without other options.

[Barack_America]

5. ER docs don't treat heart attacks.

Be assured that if you "rule-in" for an MI, your ass is off to the cardiologists in the cath lab within minutes. And that is where the big bucks start to pile up.

And, yes, Mr. Romney, people do avoid calling 911 and going to the emergency room because they, unlike you, know the costs. And yes, Mr. Romney, people die at home as a result all the time.

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7. yep, Barack_America

. . . they certainly do bring in a specialist for heart attacks after you're stabilized.

[HopeHoops]

9. Yeah, and even WITH insurance, my ambulance rides have run about $1000 each.

rMoney brings a whole new meaning to the term "out of touch with reality".

[bluestate10]

10. When I have a heart attack,

I am going to sit in my home until some one miraculously shows up to take me to a clinic which treats heart attack victims. Romney is a fool.

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11. kick