LETTER
Access to Health Care
L. D. Wright
1 February 1993 | Volume 118 Issue 3 | Pages 232-235
TO THE EDITOR:
All of us in the health care professions know we can't go on with "business as usual," and it was refreshing to see the College step forward with a well conceived plan for America's health care.
Having practiced in inner city emergency departments for almost 10 years, I suggest that the proposed copay to "discourage unnecessary services" be extended to all patients. One may certainly price-discriminate in a low-income patient's favor, but immediate access to the least cost-effective place to administer routine ambulatory care (for example, the emergency department) should have a cost to any person using it for that purpose. A dollar copay per "emergency" visit returned to the uninsured pool might stop convenience visits for those with negligible complaints and enough spendable income for cigarettes, alcohol, and "Reeboks", but not for their own health care. For the proposed system to work, all of us must make sacrifices.
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