title: Challenging assumptions about uninsured children in the pediatric emergency department.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Emergency departments (EDs) are experiencing increased volumes and crowding problems. Although crowding is often blamed on uninsured patients, the role of uninsured children is unclear. We compared ED use by insured and uninsured children.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents of children presenting at a tertiary care pediatric hospital ED were surveyed to determine health insurance coverage and frequency of ED use. Hospital billing records were reviewed separately to validate our survey results. Results were compared with Census Bureau data on the prevalence of uninsured children.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We enrolled 2024 participants in the survey arm. Of all children 48.4% (n = 972) were privately insured, 42.1% (n = 846) have government insurance, and 9.5% (n = 191) were uninsured. Billing records showed that 10.2% (n = 3825) of pediatric ED patients during the previous year were uninsured. Census data showed that 13% of children statewide were uninsured. Among survey subjects, uninsured children were more likely than privately insured children (53% vs 42%), but less likely than children with government insurance (67%), to have moderate ED use (≥1 additional ED visit in 12 months; P < 0.001) or frequent ED use (≥5 visits in 12 months; 4% vs 2% vs 8%; P < 0.001). When private and government insurance categories were combined, uninsured children showed no greater likelihood of moderate ED use (53% vs 53%, P = 0.89) or frequent ED use (4% vs 5%, P = 0.71) than insured children did.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Uninsured pediatric patients were not disproportionately represented in the ED population. Moreover, uninsured children were not more likely than insured children to be moderate or frequent ED users.
authors.affiliation: Division of Pediatric Emergency Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84158, USA. william.mcdonnell@hsc.utah.edu
authors.forename: William M
authors.initials: WM
authors.lastname: McDonnell
authors.forename: Elisabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Guenther
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004630:Emergencies; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006297:Health Services Accessibility / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D019458:Insurance Coverage / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D017057:Medically Uninsured / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States