The Urgent Care Center Fail-Safe Is Failing Americans
MedPage Today January 18, 2023
— Stricter regulation and licensing can improve care and access to care
Would the “American Girl Doll Hospital” accept Medicare and Medicaid patients? This question was posited by a viral tweet a few weeks ago. My answer? Not if doll hospitals operate anything like American urgent care centers.
Data from CDC released in late December showed that U.S. life expectancy had dropped to its lowest in 2 decades. With an average of 96 excess deaths per 100,000 people, the U.S. leads all developed nations in deaths that can be prevented by timely intervention, compared to just 83 in the U.K. and 65 in France. COVID-19 deaths certainly contributed to this decrease, but this is not the full picture. While the...