Some Americans are too conscious about their health conditions. There is often an excessive use of emergency rooms by patients who do not really need to occupy these emergency rooms. In economic terms the health care expenditure on emergency rooms is only 3 percent and out of this 12 percent of the patients are non-urgent cases. However, according to many this is the purpose of the emergency room itself to alleviate pain to anyone who fears that they suffer from serious health conditions.
There are conversely great efforts being done to assure that the health care expenditure is wisely spent. In America, around 5 percent to its gross domestic product is wrongly spent. Much is wasted in fraud and medical error. A particular expenditure that might be addressed is to reduce and avoid pointless visits to emergency rooms for conditions such as headaches ad colds. These patients could make use of more affordable solutions such as primary-care, care clinics instead of emergency rooms. In treating some of the health care ignominy the system could become more effective.
The only problem with the logic of reducing the overutilization of emergency room to minimize health care expenditures is that it represents only a diminutive 3 percent of the whole pie. Moreover, addressing the emergency myth has another fallacy, which is that non-urgent visits to emergency rooms represent only 12 percent. The cost of emergency room compared to other primary care is also subjective. There might not be any real economic benefit to tackle the overutilization of emergency rooms.
There are nonetheless some “hyperusers” of emergency rooms. Many of these users, for example those undergoing cancer care do necessarily require emergency rooms. In these cases discretionary efforts are necessary to assure longer life. It is also known that physicians can only provide a thorough treatment by treating severe injuries and illness, and also to relive and reassure patients of how to face health predicaments.
The fact is that most of the people who end up in the emergency room are there for a good reason. Clinics do not offer sufficient care and treatment beyond antibiotics as well as other similar medicaments. From the perspective of an economist there are major pitfalls that might be discovered in the expenditure on emergency care. However, this does not make emergency room a less important function than any other heath care services.
The best way to save money would be to promote healthy livings. This would include control blood pressure and avoid neurotic reactions which can trigger strokes and heart attacks. Preventing health predicaments can reduce the expenditure laid-out on health care services in America and stop hypochondriac behavior.
Source: slant, Freakonomics
Sat, Mar 27, 2010
Health And Aging, Lifestyle