Contributor: Cuts to Medicaid and to insurance subsidies will push ERs past the brink

Back in 2007, President Bush was being challenged on his opposition to the Children’s Health Insurance Program — which provides health coverage for children in families too poor to afford private insurance, yet too “wealthy” to qualify for Medicaid. His response was honest, if characteristically clumsy: “People have access to healthcare in America. After all, you just go to an emergency room.”

In a way, he wasn’t wrong. By law, ERs must evaluate and stabilize every patient who walks through the door, regardless of complaint or ability to pay. But by saying the quiet part out loud, Bush laid bare an uncomfortable truth: Emergency departments are not just for emergencies, and never have been.

I’ve been an ER doctor at an inner-city trauma center for 35 years. And while I’ve seen plen