According to The Oregonian, “Cuts in the Oregon Health Plan led to ‘an abrupt and sustained increase’ in the uninsured using hospital emergency rooms, a new study reports.”
From the report published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine, the paper pulled the following data on the effect of cutbacks in the Oregon Health Plan in early 2003:
- DOWN 52,000: Oregonians with health coverage
- UP 36 percent: Visits to hospital emergency rooms by uninsured patients
- UP 82 percent: Uninsured ER visits for alcohol use
- UP 106 percent: Uninsured ER visits for mental health problems
- UP 173 percent: Uninsured ER visits for drug problems
Of course, the high cost of seeing those patients in the emergency room is shifted to those of us who have some insurance. The study concludes, “Oregon’s Medicaid cutbacks were followed by increases in emergency department use and hospitalizations by the uninsured. Recent federal legislation facilitating similar Medicaid changes in other states may lead to replication of these events elsewhere.” You can read the Oregonian story here. The study is entitled Impact of Medicaid Cutbacks on Emergency Department Use: The Oregon Experience. You can download the original study as a PDF. The study authors are Robert A. Lowe, MD, MPH, K. John McConnell, PhD, Molly E. Vogt, MA and Jeanene A. Smith, MD, MPH.
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