• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Gov-provided health insurance didn't reduce costs.

Fishking

Fishking

Banned
DP Veteran
Joined
Feb 3, 2016
Messages
43,134
Reaction score
16,114
Gender
Undisclosed
Political Leaning
Libertarian - Right
We hear that one of the ways to reduce medical costs by providing government insurance is that it will reduce the use of the ER. In a a one-of-a-kind study, this has been demonstrated to be false. In fact, the opposite was found.

Whether we decide this is the way we need to move forward or not is one thing, the costs for doing it, and how we are going to pay for it, is another.

Emergency Room Use Stays High In Oregon Medicaid Study : Shots - Health News : NPR

But the study also found Medicaid enrollees increased their emergency room visits by 40 percent over the first 15 months.

"That was a surprise to a lot of folks," says Wright.

It was widely believed that having insurance would encourage people to get routine medical care in doctors' offices or clinics, instead of waiting until they have more serious symptoms and have to head to the ER, where care is most expensive.

After those early findings were published, health care analysts scrambled to explain why the number of ER visits didn't decline. Some thought it was a reflection of pent-up demand from people who hadn't seen a doctor in years because they didn't have insurance.

...

But Wright, one of the study's authors, says he and his colleagues have now studied two years of data — and that's not what they're finding.

"There was no sign that this [ER] use went down," he says. "So this idea of pent-up demand sort of fading away — at least in the first couple of years, it didn't happen."
Click to expand...
 
Another case where the advocates talk like they know stuff, but in reality they never cared enough to learn before they started creating and selling their ideas on what we should do. In America this has long happened all the ****ing time. This is one of the big reasons why the elite keep failing, they so often refuse to do the work.
 
Fishking said:
We hear that one of the ways to reduce medical costs by providing government insurance is that it will reduce the use of the ER. In a a one-of-a-kind study, this has been demonstrated to be false. In fact, the opposite was found.

Whether we decide this is the way we need to move forward or not is one thing, the costs for doing it, and how we are going to pay for it, is another.

Emergency Room Use Stays High In Oregon Medicaid Study : Shots - Health News : NPR
Click to expand...

Interesting study design.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Another case where the advocates talk like they know stuff, but in reality they never cared enough to learn before they started creating and selling their ideas on what we should do. In America this has long happened all the ****ing time. This is one of the big reasons why the elite keep failing, they so often refuse to do the work.
Click to expand...

But social policies make wonderful populist sales pitches, is given another name. That means that the economic sense is less important to liberals.
 
Hawkeye10 said:
Another case where the advocates talk like they know stuff, but in reality they never cared enough to learn before they started creating and selling their ideas on what we should do. In America this has long happened all the ****ing time. This is one of the big reasons why the elite keep failing, they so often refuse to do the work.
Click to expand...

Seriously right...... Those law makers are not going to "ERs" in the first place, they got to their own private medical doctors.


Walk into any ER right now. those places are PACKED to the brim, Morning, Noon and Night. And then with out being "politically correct" Look at the individuals in there...... SERIOUSLY.....Homeless, Druggies, Low income family, immigrants, its the same MO..... and then tell me how we are going to fix the issue.....
 
Exactice said:
Seriously right...... Those law makers are not going to "ERs" in the first place, they got to their own private medical doctors.


Walk into any ER right now. those places are PACKED to the brim, Morning, Noon and Night. And then with out being "politically correct" Look at the individuals in there...... SERIOUSLY.....Homeless, Druggies, Low income family, immigrants, its the same MO..... and then tell me how we are going to fix the issue.....
Click to expand...

I also seem to notice an inordinate amount of people with mental disorders of varying degrees.
 
Fishking said:
I also seem to notice an inordinate amount of people with mental disorders of varying degrees.
Click to expand...

Add it to the list.... its sad....... people cant or unwilling to take care of themselves..... so they must rely on the system to do it for them
 
Fishking said:
We hear that one of the ways to reduce medical costs by providing government insurance is that it will reduce the use of the ER. In a a one-of-a-kind study, this has been demonstrated to be false. In fact, the opposite was found.

Whether we decide this is the way we need to move forward or not is one thing, the costs for doing it, and how we are going to pay for it, is another.

Emergency Room Use Stays High In Oregon Medicaid Study : Shots - Health News : NPR
Click to expand...

Just to jump in here.. but a couple of likely culprits are

1. While Oregon expanded the number of folks getting Medicaid.. Oregon Medicaid SUCKS if you are a provider. So the number of providers that would accept Medicaid was insufficient to meet the increase numbers so they overflew to the ER's.

2. Since its known that Medicaid providers often try to decrease "useless visits" to the ER. Their certainly may be the though among Medicaid recipients that they will not be referred for needed medical care if they go to a Medicaid provider.. so they may be going to the ER in a way to get what they think is "needed" care.
 
jaeger19 said:
Just to jump in here.. but a couple of likely culprits are

1. While Oregon expanded the number of folks getting Medicaid.. Oregon Medicaid SUCKS if you are a provider. So the number of providers that would accept Medicaid was insufficient to meet the increase numbers so they overflew to the ER's.

2. Since its known that Medicaid providers often try to decrease "useless visits" to the ER. Their certainly may be the though among Medicaid recipients that they will not be referred for needed medical care if they go to a Medicaid provider.. so they may be going to the ER in a way to get what they think is "needed" care.
Click to expand...

Good points, I don't have any link information to go off of but it sounds plausible. It still doesn't negate the overall numbers/point, which is that ER visits actually increased significantly and this will cost money and how are we going to pay for it for everyone?
 
Fishking said:
Good points, I don't have any link information to go off of but it sounds plausible. It still doesn't negate the overall numbers/point, which is that ER visits actually increased significantly and this will cost money and how are we going to pay for it for everyone?
Click to expand...

Well it does.. if the number of providers increases so that folks with Medicaid.. are more likely to go them rather than the ER.. then costs will decline

In addition.. if the quality of providers or the care received is perceived to be better in the clinic.. rather than the ER.. then costs will decline.
 
ObamaCare was never intended to reduce costs, Obama either did not know or did not care that excessive costs of healthcare is bankrupting this nation and is not remotely sustainable.
 
jaeger19 said:
Well it does.. if the number of providers increases so that folks with Medicaid.. are more likely to go them rather than the ER.. then costs will decline

In addition.. if the quality of providers or the care received is perceived to be better in the clinic.. rather than the ER.. then costs will decline.
Click to expand...

In theory. So far all was have is this study and it shows costs/visits to the ER to go up.
 
Fishking said:
In theory. So far all was have is this study and it shows costs/visits to the ER to go up.
Click to expand...

Of course.. but just as its inaccurate to assume that simply giving people insurance will make costs go down.. its also inaccurate to assume that people having insurance is making costs go up.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom