SHOCKER! UNINSURED NOT JAMMING EMERGENCY ROOMS

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that hospital emergency rooms are, indeed, jammed. But it's not for the reason proponents of nationalized health care suggest.

In conducting the first study of its kind, researchers discovered that other scholarly papers on the uninsured simply assumed that they are the principal cause of emergency department (ED) overcrowding:

• Among the 127 identified articles, 53 had at least 1 assumption about uninsured ED patients, with a mean of 3 assumptions per article.
• Common assumptions include hypotheses that increasing numbers of uninsured patients present to the ED and that uninsured patients lack access to primary care.
• Available data support statements that ED care is more expensive than office-based care, and this is true for all users, insured and uninsured.
• It doesn't support assumptions that uninsured patients are a primary cause of ED overcrowding, present with less acute conditions than insured patients or seek ED care primarily for convenience.

In fact, it's not the uninsured who burden America's emergency rooms so much as it is people who are carrying government insurance policies. The low reimbursement rates mean very few will accept taxpayer-funded insurance any more, leaving those on government plans to visit ERs for care instead of primary-care physicians.

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STAGED

President Obama has used events such as community discussion groups and last week's summit to foster the impression that he is soliciting opinions from all angles of the health care debate, but the reality is a lot different. Obscured by the Administration's theatrics is the fact that it has kept at bay those who advocate free-market solutions rather than government-run health care.

The guest list to the 'summit' was a telling sign. Despite having representatives from 169 different labor, industry, and policy organizations, the White House did not invite any organizations that advocate a consumer-based free-market approach to health care.

Progressive organizations such as the Center for American Progress, Health Care for America NOW!, and Campaign for America's Future were represented, but pro-market groups such as the Cato Institute, Consumers for Health Care Choices, the Galen Institute, or the Council for Affordable Health Insurance were not.

"They brought in the health care establishment to basically divvy up the pie, and consumers were left out of it entirely,"

lamented Greg Scandlen, president of Consumers for Health Care Choices.

"This is all predetermined and orchestrated to get the result they want."

Shadegg noted that other lawmakers who weren't invited included free marketers such as Rep. Paul Ryan, Rep. Tom Price, Sen. Richard Burr, Sen. Jim DeMint, and Obama's personal friend, Sen. Tom Coburn.

By contrast, Sen. Bernard Sanders and Rep. John Conyers were on hand -- both of them advocate a socialized, or single-payer, system.

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