Roughly 26 million Americans do not have health insurance. Most of these people are forced to use hospital emergency rooms as their primary source of medical care. Many of our nation’s emergency rooms loose hundreds of millions of dollars each year and some have closed for this reason. In human terms, ER patients often wait long periods of time before receiving treatment while others are unable to receive treatment at all. There are about 6,500 emergency departments and rooms in the U.S. And according to the CDC, nearly 136 million patients visit these emergency rooms each year, with 40 million of these visits being injury-related. In 2017, the total cost of American emergency room visits was $76.3 billion, with an average per-visit cost of about $2,200.

Studies show a widespread and increasing level of overcrowding in America’s emergency departments, a crisis that puts patient safety and access to care at risk. Due to overcrowded conditions at local ERs, about 45% of all emergency departments now divert ambulances to more distant hospitals. Data shows that ERs with low profit margins and those at for-profit facilities were nearly twice as likely to close as other ERs. Experts say that we do not have enough rural emergency room facilities and these assets are woefully inadequate to treat large numbers of victims from a disaster, terror attack, or another pandemic.

Pending Legislation: H.R.3980 - Streamline Emergency Care Act
Sponsor: Rep. Michael Lawler (NY)
Status: House Committee on Energy and Commerce
Chair: Rep. Brett Guthrie (KY)

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