Evaluating National Health Care Reform

A striking measure that I came across while evaluating the Health Care Delivery System of New York City is the number of individuals that identify themselves as having a Primary Care Physician (PCP). The percentage of individuals who respond that they have a PCP is a very important measure for healthcare policy makers. PCPs are a very important component of overall health and wellness.  Most notably, PCPs are essential to the management of one’s health.  A strong relationship between a patient and a PCP can promote wellness better than any other healthcare professional through sound advice, timely referrals to specialized health services, and management of treatment.

Further, individuals who don’t have a PCP, they are far more likely to utilize New York City’s Emergency Departments for non-emergent and non-urgent uses.  This is a significant misallocation of health care resources, for several reasons- it unnecessarily restrict the ability of the ED to respond to a sudden increase in demand, it is far more expensive to see a patient in the ED, and there are significant increases in wait time for patients in need of treatment for acute conditions.

Fig 1- Utilization of Primary Care Physician- In four Neighborhoods, under 70% of the population has a Primary Care Physician.

What I found especially remarkable was the identical map that was charted by the rates of insured adults in New York City.   See for yourself:

Figure 2- Portion of Population that is uninsured- Note that the same four Neighborhoods highlighted above have high rates of uninsurance.

It is the comparison of these maps that every promoter of nationalized health care should be touting.  This is the single most blaring example of how big a stride universal (or near-universal) health care would make towards improving access to the health care delivery system.  The argument practically speaks for itself.