Obamacare: Who Could Have Seen This Coming?

by Steven Hayward in Annals of Government Medicine, Obamacare

Really, who could have seen this coming?  From today’s Wall Street Journal:

ER Visits Rise Despite Health Law
Health Act Isn’t Cutting Emergency Volume So Far; Government Says It’s Too Early to Draw Conclusions

The only thing wrong with the main headline is its accuracy; it should of course read “ER Visits Rise Because of Health Law.”  Anyway:

Early evidence suggests that emergency rooms have become busier since the Affordable Care Act expanded insurance coverage this year, despite the law’s goal of reducing unnecessary care in ERs.
Almost half of ER doctors say they are seeing more patients since key provisions of the health law took effect Jan. 1, while more than a quarter say their patient volume has remained the same, according to a survey to be released Wednesday by the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Eighty-six percent of emergency doctors expect visits to rise over the next three years, though the email survey didn’t ask the doctors why.
Democrats who designed the 2010 health law hoped it would do the opposite.

Important safety tip for legislators: Any sentence that begins “Democrats design law to [fill in the blank]” can be assured that it will do the opposite nine times out of 10.


http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/05/obamacare-who-could-have-seen-this-coming.php