Estimation of emergency room visits: Implications for uninsured in South Carolina

This study assesses the relationships between the percentage of emergency room visits, the percentage of uninsured population, and socio-demographic characteristics. This is accomplished by developing linear models of the relationships among these variables for the 46 counties of South Carolina for the year 2000. The results showed that the percentage of non-White population and percentage of business establishments that employ fewer than 50 workers had significant positive influence on the percentage of uninsured population. The median household income and high percentage of population with educational attainment beyond high school had a significant negative influence on the percentage of uninsured population. The results also indicated that counties with a high percentage of uninsured population also had higher usage of emergency room facilities for most of the selected diagnoses categories (except mental disorders). Implications are that at the national level, there is a need for policy makers to study their options for enhancing access to health insurance for the groups that have traditionally been most likely to be uninsured. In addition, policy makers can provide programs that increase access to routine medical care for the uninsured population and programs to reduce the overall burden on emergency room utilization.;Key Words: Uninsured, Emergency room visits, Regression models...