Having U.S. Medicaid insurance may increase ER use: study

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO (Reuters) - Expanding access to Medicaid, a major plank of President Barack Obama's health reform law, could increase emergency room visits by people on the healthcare program for the poor rather than decrease them, results of a study published on Thursday suggest. A unique experiment in Oregon in which residents were randomly given Medicaid insurance cards, showed their visits to the emergency room increased by 40 percent, a sobering statistic as many states face an influx of new Medicaid patients under the new law. The study, published in the journal Science, suggests simply providing insurance coverage to low-income Americans will not be enough to curb their use of emergency rooms, which for many has been the only place they can turn when health problems become acute and more costly to treat. The research, based on records from thousands of emergency room visits, did not shed light on why ER visits increased.

via Health News Headlines - Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/having-u-medicaid-insurance-may-increase-er-study-233313565--sector.html