COMMENTARY | When Mitt Romney announced that we could repeal Obamacare because emergency rooms would keep anyone from dying, folks like me figured Romney made yet another gaffe. But that’s because we have a lot of myths about the emergency rooms of America. Closer scrutiny busts many of these myths.
On CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Romney said universal coverage wasn’t necessary because emergency rooms would pick up the slack. “Well, we do provide care for people who don’t have insurance,” Romney told Scott Pelley, the show’s host, according to the Washington Post. If someone has a heart attack, they don’t sit in their apartment and die. We pick them up in an ambulance, and take them to the hospital, and give them care. And different states have different ways of providing for that care.”
Democrats pounced, of course. And it may cause Romney to fall further behind in polls. But that’s because we have a three myths about emergency rooms that are just that: myths.
We’ve all assumed that more visits to primary care physicians would be better, because they would catch problems earlier before they became bigger, more expensive problems to treat in an emergency room. Forbes Magazine cites a Rand Study implying as much. But some economists didn’t concur. “Our results indicate that greater outpatient spending was associated with more hospital admissions,” write Robert Kaestner and Anthony T. Lo Sasso. They go on to show that the “catch it early with primary care doctors” leads to more health care spending, not less.
If anything, such spending at emergency rooms is more likely to go up after the passage of Obamacare, according to surveys, as noted by HealthDay News. Such spending might decline with a Romney presidency that undoes the Affordable Care Act.
Myth #2: Emergency Room Costs Are Behind Rampant Health Care Spending
We’ve all known that health care spending is up, and naturally assume it’s all about emergency room care. Butan in-depth study by the Economist cited other factors as the real culprit, ranging from technology, the health insurance coverage system, the tax incentive structure, the cost of drugs, and oligopolies in a series of state markets.
Myth #3: Emergency Room Cost Bankrupt People
There may be individual extreme cases of this, but an article by Lesley Alderman with the New York Timesshows how bills can be negotiated down, and are often the opening line in a discussion. There are ways to reduce your emergency room bill, Alderman points out. But it is something else to do so over a string of primary care physician visits.
The Myths Are Busted, But Did Romney Flip Flop On Health Care?
Of course, Romney did flip flop on his evaluation of health care, where he once pushed for universal coverage, as well as calling emergency rooms “socialistic” for treating everyone, according to Huffington Post. But should a GOP Congress repeal Obamacare and a President Romney signs that bill into law, the situation is not so bleak for those of us who don’t have insurance.
John A. Tures is an associate professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Ga.
