A bit counter-intuitive, yes?

From CBSWashington.com:

WASHINGTON (CBSDC) – According to a recent study, severely injured patients are less likely to be transferred to a trauma center if they have health insurance.

Researchers from the Stanford University of Medicine found that patients with insurance are less likely to get the best care than those who do not have insurance. They found that insured patients taken to non-trauma hospitals were 13 to 15 percent less likely to be transferred to trauma centers than uninsured ones.

“Insured patients may, ironically, get worse outcomes because they are taken care of at a center where there’s a lower volume of resource for critically injured patients,” Dr. M. Kit Delgado, a former Stanford emergency medicine instructor, and the study’s lead author said in a press release obtained by HealthDay News.

So there you go.

Your wonderful Free Cheese at work, along with your hard-earned American Taxpayer dollars.  Screw ya for having the temerity to possess any kind of health insurance.

Wait, there goes another Illegal Mexican to a local trauma center!  Aren’t you pleased?

BZ