Emergency room visits have increased since the implementation of Obamacare

 One of the selling points of Obamacare, and more specifically the individual mandate, was the mantra that many uninsured people use the emergency room as their primary care office. Because of this the costs of healthcare rise and the taxpayers end up footing the bill for the uninsured. So while taxpayers would subsidize healthcare plans under Obamacare for the less fortunate among us it would end up being cheaper in the long run because the mandate insured that people would start to become responsible for their own coverage and the cost of healthcare would go down as a result.

  This could be a legitimate argument and it does make some sense on paper, however the reality seems to be a little different at this point. The American College of Emergency Physicians has released a new study in which they claim emergency room visits have actually spiked since Obamacare was implemented.

A just-released nationwide survey of about 1,800 emergency room doctors found that almost half reported increases in ER patients since the first of the year. Nine percent reported the volume of emergency patients increased “greatly” while 37 percent said visits increased “slightly.” The same survey reported that 31 percent of ER doctors found an increase in Medicaid emergency room patients.

  How can this be when we were promised emergency room visits would drop under Obamacare?

Here’s why: Washington enrolled about 400,000 new Medicaid clients through the state’s new health care exchange. Anderson explains that patients getting health care for the first time often can’t or don’t get a primary care doctor right away.

“And so now, if you can’t get primary care, you go back to the doc that you always had before and that’s why people go to the emergency department,” he said.

  This example is from the state of Washington but it is apparently happening all over the country as well:

“There are not enough primary care physicians anywhere in the country to handle the increase we’re seeing (in emergency room visits) with the Affordable Care Act,” said Anderson.

  This appears to be another lie, right up there with the if you like your plan you can keep your plan lie, but Obamacare is still in its infancy so it is possible that over time we could see this promise come to fruition. It might still be to early to judge.

  However one needs to look no further than the scandal surrounding the Veterans Affairs office, with its secret waiting lists and long waiting periods for primary care physicians,  to see a glimpse into the future as more and more the government gets its greedy little hands in the insurance industry. These problems with Veterans Affairs have been going on for years and they have still not been addressed so I for one am not hopeful…..