If Obamacare was intended to do anything with regard to hospital emergency rooms, it was to lessen the strain on them by diverting people who used ERs for basic health services to private doctors. But that’s not the way it’s playing out in California where, according to a report from station KMPH, the Affordable Care Act is having a “destructive” effect on ER care, bumping up already long wait times.
Part of the problem, which has already manifest itself in other states, is that more — not fewer patients — are seeking treatment at ERs because their doctors won’t accept their plan’s coverage.