Healthcare Reform Works: Less Patients In ER

Ten days after the launch of a healthcare reform, as a part of which patients pay fees when they visit a doctor (30 CZK, about $1.20) or an emergency room (90 CZK, about $4) doctors from emergency rooms report: we have less patients around here.

To be exact, we are talking patients who come on their own and on foot with minor things like headaches, scratches and other things, as well as patients who did not have time to see their own physician due to bad timing (work vs. office hours).

To me, this is a signal that it really works. This is a signal that the services of ER were being misused to a large extent by irresponsible people.

I know a doctor who admits that the number of elderly patients who had frequently been coming to his office decreased as well. Many of them just came to chew the rag [I know it is old], said that they felt well…and they just needed to hear that some things are normal at this age.