Best Care Everywhere Washington Monthly
Ack in July, while trying to justify his opposition to expanding government health care coverage for children, President Bush made a telling comment. The uninsured, he said, "have access to health care in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room."
That remark stuck many as blithe and callous, and in many ways it was. The uninsured don't receive in ERs anything like the full array of health care they need. Indeed, one of the abiding arguments for universal health care is that patients often wind up in the emergency room with acute illnesses that could have been treated earlier, and more cheaply, had they been able to afford regular doctor's visits.
Still, there was a kernel of truth to Bush's comment—one that we ought to take as a jumping-off point for rethinking how best to provide health insurance for all. The fact is, as a nation we already have an extensive, if ad hoc, system for providing health care to the uninsured. A fair amount of money flows through that system. And the quality of care it provides is far better than you might think.
