Access to Health Insurance, Primary Care Needed To Address Emergency Department Overcrowding, Editorial States

A "very plausible interpretation of a disturbing increase" in emergency department wait times is that the "nation's failure to provide health insurance for all Americans seems to be harming even many of those who do have good health coverage," a New York Times editorial states. "Uninsured patients -- and those who have no primary care doctor -- flock to emergency rooms for routine coverage, clogging the systems," and "hospitals lose so much money dispensing charity care through emergency rooms that many collapse into bankruptcy or give up emergency care," according to the editorial.

The editorial cites a recent study conducted by researchers at the Cambridge Health Alliance and Harvard Medical School that found median wait times to see physicians in EDs increased from 22 minutes in 1997 to 30 minutes in 2004. According to the editorial, physicians with the alliance recommended "expanding insurance coverage and primary care for the poor to provide alternatives to overcrowded emergency rooms for those seeking routine care." The editorial concludes, "That is the best way to ensure that all the people who truly need emergency care get it when they need it" (New York Times, 1/19).