More emergencies.

• Author: Suderman, Peter
• Position: Obamacare in the ER - Effect of Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and Medicaid to emergency room crowding - Brief article

SUPPORTERS OF Obamacare have long pitched the law as a way to address emergency room crowding caused by lack of health coverage. Individuals without health coverage, the thinking goes, have no place to turn when they need medical attention, and as a result they head to the emergency room. That creates crowding, which can strain medical resources. It's also more expensive than an ordinary trip to the doctor. By giving people insurance, they argued, Obamacare could mitigate this problem.

But the best evidence has never really supported the hope that the law would reduce emergency room usage. That's because much of the law's expanded coverage comes via Medicaid, the jointly run federal-state program for the poor and disabled. And Medicaid beneficiaries tend to visit the emergency room more often than the uninsured.

A January study of Medicaid beneficiaries in Oregon, published in the journal Science, finds that adult beneficiaries of the program rely on emergency rooms about 40 percent more than similar...