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Overcrowding In Healthcare

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Emergency Room (ER) overcrowding has become a big issue within the healthcare industry. Many people had high expectations that the Obama Affordable Care Act would help reduce the high volume of patients seen in the Emergency Departments. Instead, ER visits have increased. Although Obama Care has increased healthcare services within the medically uninsured and underserved populations through Medicaid and Medicare programs, this community of people tends to utilize the emergency department as a form of primary medical care, and most of these visits are not actual emergencies. In fact, ER visits are costlier compared to routine primary care visits, and the high cost of ER visits affects hospitals tremendously, a hospital cannot turn away patients.

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