PatriotsInGA

I got around to thinking about this while seeing a billboard for the current ER waiting time (yes we are that advanced in the Bible Belt )


And it got me thinking, if every American had healthcare, the waiting time would greatly increase. Now I thought maybe 20-30 minutes per ER.

This may not seems like a long time, but what if you have a minor injury? Let's say a broken ankle or an object stuck in your arm (my case). I ended up waiting 1 hour and 40 minutes just to be seen. But that's beside the point. Now that more people have healthcare, more people will be in the ER. You will have to wait behind them. You could be there for what seems like forever.

This is just another problem with the HC bill. I guess no one in Congress failed to think about this problem; and that goes for both Democrats and Republicans.

Patsfanin Philly

Not just in ERs but in doctors' offices. If you increase demand by 20% by insuring those currently without but you keep the supply of doctors at the same level, you burden the system and the result will be longer waits to see the doctor or shorter visits when you do, or both....
I say that, not as a criticism of the HC bill, but as an observation and a prediction.

PatriotsReign

Well, obviously those with real health care should get priority.

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Mrs.PatsFanInVa

Nobody's health care policy, real or otherwise, means diddly-squat in an ER - it never has and it never will.

ERs are run on a triage system - doesn't matter when you come in, only matters what you come in with. A guy with chest pain will always be seen before a guy with a broken arm, a guy with a broken arm will always be seen before a guy with a head cold. A gunshot to the head trumps a gunshot to the buttocks - unless the gunshot to the buttocks isn't breathing right and seems to be bleeding out and the guy with the gunshot to the head is not only breathing fine but talking to the nurse as well - In which case they will be seen virtually simultaneously.

Insurance simply does not matter. Nor should it. You'll appreciate that fact the next time you have a heart attack while out jogging and do not have a wallet with any ID on you and are rushed to the ER unconscious and unidentifiable.

Trust me on this one.

sdaniels7114

The ER wait time sign for the hospital near my house, St Elizabeth's, never says more than 15 minutes. They just spent 10's of millions remodeling the ER, so if they were ever in a position to need to resort to staff cuts it would be now.

This is in Boston, MA. where UHC has been a fact of life for going on 5 years now.

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Harry Boy

Your Right.............

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chicowalker

So, are you suggesting that we should try to make sure fewer people have health insurance, for the convenience of those of us who currently happen to have it?

Mrs.PatsFanInVa

Actually, this idea that univeral health care will result in more people visiting ERs thus increasing the wait time is in direct contradiction to the current theory usually touted on here that wait times in ERs are long because there are so many uninsured people who rely solely on ERs for their health care.

Which is it, guys? Can't have it both ways, yanno.

Either the ERs are not currently filled with uninsured patients but they will be when uninsured patients have insurance or the ERs ARE currently filled with uninsured patients who, when they get universal health insurance, will be able to seek care in a doctor's office, thus leaving the ERs to those who are seriously injured or ill.

Or it'll be a wash because some will and some won't.

The Brandon Five

Well, if Massachusetts' experience with universal care is any guide it appears that both will increase. Part of the idea behind the Mass. law was that the reduced ER expenses would help subsidize insurance for those who did not have it. In practice, many of those who visited ERs previously did so out of ignorance and because they did not have to pay more for it (Medicaid patients). Those phenomena will now be played out nationwide.

Emergency room visits grow in Mass. - The Boston Globe

Who Uses Emergency Care and Why?

On top of this, I think that there are people that believed the demagoguery of the left that there were 40 or 50 million Americans with "no health care" who will now seek care, but do so in the wrong place (ER) as those on Medicaid did in the past.

There will also be those who now have coverage and who seek out a primary care doctor, so I expect demand to increase for both.

As the OP mentioned, no provisions were made in the plan for increasing the pool of providers which means that we will all be waiting more.

PatsWSB47

I can vouch for this because my wife works in the ER/trauma center in a hospital as an RN. She tells me that the long wait times are due mostly to people that are not there for emergency treatment...though she tells me a number complain that more serious cases get in ahead of them when it was they that were there first. Nevertheless they have to treat each one thoroughly enough to rule out genuine injury or illness.