Nearly 80 percent of uninsured patients seeking emergency care in California emergency departments were eligible for some form of government insurance but were not enrolled, according to a survey published in Health Affairs by the Foundation for Health Coverage Education.
From March 2010-Feb. 2011, FHCE surveyed uninsured patients at point-of-service in the EDs of a large hospital system in California. The survey found 79.7 percent of patients were eligible for public health coverage programs and 16.9 percent were eligible for private coverage.
The survey prompted questions over why the eligible uninsured aren’t enrolling in government health coverage programs and how the government can enroll those eligible more quickly and efficiently. FHCE identified barriers to enrollment, including fragmented communication with agencies, poor provider incentives for enrolling the uninsured and underfunded programs.
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