According to a report out this week, the average total waiting time in a U.S. emergency room in 2008 was four hours and three minutes, a 27-minute increase in nationwide average wait times since 2002. The recession is one chief reason for the increase, according to the American College of Emergency Physicians. In a survey in January of more than 1,700 emergency doctors, 66 percent said they'd seen an increase in the number of patients in their emergency rooms over the preceding six months. Most of the physicians -- 83 percent -- reported seeing patients who'd lost their jobs and health insurance and delayed medical care.
"Some of these people come to the ER because they've been turned away by their primary care physician, because they've lost their insurance," said Dr. Angela Gardner, incoming president of the physicians group. "Sometimes they've delayed care because they have no insurance and end up with a much more serious condition."
Gardner, who works in the ER at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, said these newly uninsured people are taxing an overburdened system. Read More at CNN.com
Accelerating health-care premiums and sharp revenue shortfalls due to the recession are forcing some small companies to choose between dropping health insurance or laying off workers -- or staying in business at all. Read More at WSJ.com:
"Family physicians are seeing evidence of the recession's impact on access to health care for Americans, and are offering more charity care, lower fees and free screenings to a growing number of needy patients, according to a survey published on May 19 by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
In a national poll of Academy members, signs of the negative impact of the recession on health care included an increase in appointment cancellations, reported by 58 percent of respondents, and patients expressing concerns over their ability to pay for health care, reported by almost 90 percent of those surveyed.
Other signs of the recession's impact were an increase in patients' stress symptoms, reported by 87 percent of doctors surveyed, and an increase in the number of uninsured patients, noted by 73 percent of respondents. The majority of doctors surveyed (66 percent) were acting to help ease the burden by changing patients to generic prescriptions and providing discounted or free services." Read More...:
"Even as rising unemployment strips people of health insurance, sending many to emergency departments for care, doctors on the front lines say the lingering recession is also prompting an unexpected outcome.
More patients, they say, are refusing potentially costly procedures ranging from tests to confirm heart attacks to overnight stays to monitor dangerous infections." Read more...
"The current recession is likely to lead to a surge in deaths as companies announce more layoffs and consumers lose access to affordable health care, a local health care economist predicts."
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