Health Insurance Coverage and ER Use

Study: Uninsured don’t go to the ER more than insured, By Mary Brophy Marcus, May 20, 2010, USA Today: “A kiss gone awry isn’t the typical route that lands a person in the emergency room, but that’s just how Maggie Craytor ended up in the University of Virginia Medical Center’s emergency department in August. ‘She was running after her older brother Luke to give him a kiss, and she fell and got a cut right underneath her eye,’ says her mother, Allison. Maggie, now 4, needed two stitches. Her mother is glad the family had insurance to cover the costly emergency visit her pediatrician’s office recommended. The Craytors, a family of five with private health insurance, are just as likely to use the emergency room as people without insurance, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention…”