The War on Medicaid

The biggest problem is that this policy doesn't actually do anything to keep these patients out of the ER. They pay nothing now, they will pay nothing under the new policy. And it's not like there is a huge network of private docs waiting and eager to accept Medicaid patients in their offices. So they will continue to come, and emergency providers will simply be obligated to care for them without reimbursement. It's a forced cramdown on hospital and physician reimbursement, and other, more urgent, patients will still suffer longer waits because of the ER crowding driven (in some part) by overuse.