Emergency room visits are going up. In fact, in a recent survey published in Health Leaders magazine and Thomson Reuters, it showed that between 2007 and 2009 emergent visit rates increased at more than 12% annually.
However, it is also important to note that in today's medical schools less than 5% of the graduating class are going into primary care. If we are going to expand coverage to an additional 30 million individuals, who is going to treat these patients? In simple economics we have a supply and demand situation.