Massachusetts, Model for Universal Health Care, Sees Ups and Downs in Policy

From the NY Times:

… the study, which was scheduled for publication Thursday in the journal Health Affairs, found that increased demand for care from the newly insured was confronting an insufficient supply of willing physicians. One in five adults said they had been told in the last 12 months that a doctor or clinic was not accepting new patients or would not see patients with their type of insurance. The rejection rates for low-income adults and those with public insurance were double the rates for higher-income residents and those with private coverage.

The authors concluded that the high rejection rates helped explain another important finding: that there has been little change in the use of emergency rooms for non-emergency treatment. Among low-income residents — defined as those with incomes of less than three times the federal poverty level, or $66,150 for a family of four — 23 percent said their last trip to an emergency room had been for a non-emergency, the same as in 2006.

Immediate-care clinics are a growing business

From the Wichita Eagle:

From “doc in a box” settings in retail stores to full-service offices with X-rays and labs, walk-in medical clinics are a growing business, in Wichita and nationwide. A dozen have opened in the metro area in the past couple of years, reaching out for customers who want medical care beyond the 9-to-5 world.

The Urgent Care Association of America, a trade organization, estimates there are more than 8,000 urgent care clinics nationwide. A third of them have been in operation five years or less, it says.

The number doesn’t include retail clinics; the Convenient Care Association, a trade group, estimates there are 1,200 of them.

Wichita has six retail-based clinics, the Take Care Clinics that opened in Walgreens stores last summer.

Green Party candidate says some smaller ERs should be closed

From the CBC:

A medical doctor running for the Green Party in Cape Breton has suggested that some emergency rooms in the province be closed.

Dr. Chris Milburn, the Green Party candidate in the riding of Cape Breton North, said there are better ways to spend health-care dollars.

“It’s hideously expensive to keep all these small ERs open 24-7,” Milburn told CBC News on Friday. “There may be better ways to spend our money, to spend our health-care dollar,” he said.