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.

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