Because federal law requires most hospital emergency rooms to treat everyone, uninsured poor people use emergency rooms to get free care for non-emergency conditions. When the uninsured enroll in Medicaid, do they visit emergency rooms less or more often?
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A recent study of Oregon's Medicaid expansion found that new Medicaid enrollees had a 40% increase in "emergency-department visits across a broad range of types of visits, conditions, and subgroups, including increases in visits for conditions that may be most readily treatable in primary care settings."
DocumentationMedicaid and Emergency RoomsHealthcare Cost Shifting
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