Visits to the Emergency Room: Bush-care, Canada-care, and UK-care compared

January 25, 2011 — As Congressional Republicans do their best to repeal “Obama-care,” Remapping Debate revisits how “Bush-care” stacked up against England and Canada in terms of Emergency Room visits per 1,000 people in the period from 2003 to 2008.

The chart shows how that rate of E.R. visits in the U.S. exceeded the rate in England from 2003 to 2008, and greatly exceeded the rate in Canada. Though Emergency Room visits account for a relatively small piece of the health care system, many have long argued that high rates of E.R. admissions are directly related to a lack of access to primary care and to the high cost of prescription drugs.