AS John Ekdahl notes, we were told that the opposite was going to happen.  And yet, here we are: “Nationally, nearly half of ER doctors responding to a recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians said they’ve seen more visits since Jan. 1, and nearly nine in 10 expect those visits to rise in the next three years. Mike Rust, president of the Kentucky Hospital Association, said members statewide describe the same trend.”  Essentially, what is happening is that people on Medicaid are discovering that having access to a form of medical insurance does not mean the same as access to medical care.  Many doctors do not take Medicaid, and there’s not enough doctors anyway: but the emergency room is always there; as a result, not only are more people using ERs, they’re also using them for a wider range of services than, strictly speaking, emergency ones.

This is, by the way, where I note the following:

• Health Care? *Ahem.* I told you so. April 24, 2010.
• Obamacare to overwhelm emergency rooms. May 17, 2010.
• Hey! #Obamacare hurts the poor, thanks to Medicaid. I know: shocker, huh? April 9, 2014.

Because I do not want anybody to pretend that any of this is actually a surprise. We were telling people four years ago that Medicaid was going to be a mess, from lack of doctors to overwhelmed emergency rooms.  This was a known thing; and the people that argued otherwise then have demonstrated a remarkable lack of shame when it comes to their cheerleading now. And that’s not my fault, or the GOP’s fault, or the Right’s fault either.  This is, top to bottom, left to right, front to back, a Democratic party problem and a Democrat-themed disaster event.

Make them own it.

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Step one in fixing the problem? Remove Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader and replace him with a Republican.  Then we can talk about making Barack Obama face a hard choice for the first time in his extraordinarily privileged and elitist life.