Emergency rooms are increasingly full of patients with severe illnesses. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association reveals that emergency room visits are increasing at a rate double that of the growth in population.

There were over 119 million emergency room visits in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thirteen percent of those visits resulted in the patient being admitted.

American College of Emergency Physicians president Dr. Angela Gardner believes that Medicaid patients in particular find themselves frequently going to the emergency room for care. She says that the poor compensation levels doctors receive for Medicaid patients forces them to limit the number of patients they care for.

Gardner asserts that the large number of emergency room closings is only making it more difficult for patients to seek care.

"This limits everyone's access to lifesaving emergency care. ERs are a critical, life or death part of our health care system that need help now. The crisis in emergency care is everyone's problem, because we are all only one step away from a medical emergency."