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A big drain on hospitals are treating uninsured people who they can't reliably collect payment for treatment from. Expanding insurance through public exchanges
by rtkwe 3y ago
A big drain on hospitals are treating uninsured people who they can't reliably collect payment for treatment from. Expanding insurance through public exchanges and wider employer healthcare requirements plus bringing more people on to Medicaid decreases the number of people who are uninsured. There's also the effect that if you catch issues with diseases sooner they're usually cheaper to treat for obvious reasons, same goes for chronic issues that may be poorly managed because the patient can't afford to go to a doctor regularly or keep up with their medication.
- jbm 3y agoThis is extremely informative. I never lived in the US and was unaware of this possibility. Thank you!
- rtkwe 3y agoTo expand for you then there's a requirement that Emergency Rooms treat anyone regardless of their ability to pay. So there's a somewhat chronic issue of people who are unable to get regular treatment who's condition worsens to the point they can go to an Emergency Room to get treatment for what could be otherwise managed more cheaply at a regular doctor earlier, but because those doctors aren't forced to treat anyone that comes to them like ERs people that fall into the gap between Medicaid and regular insurance or being able to afford thing without insurance often wind up using the ER as a doctor of last resort. Treating things in the ER is much more expensive even without the chronic nature of some of the issues affecting those patients.