Annals of emergency medicine
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EDs and emergency physicians play a critical role in health care delivery--providing care to those with life-threatening conditions, as well as serving as provider of last resort to those without options for primary care. This diversity of functions provides unique opportunities for identifying important unmet community needs and developing solutions to address these needs. Future challenges for emergency medicine include assessing and improving the quality of care provided within the ED and identifying the role of the ED in systems of care. Health services research can help define the optimal functions of emergency medicine in enhancing population health.
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What will the future bring? Will biomedical advances move rapidly and affordably into clinical practice, stimulated by the demands of the educated consumer? Or will changes in the way health care is financed and physician inability to stay abreast of clinical changes widen the gap between high-quality and mediocre medical care? Is there a limit to what we can afford to provide, regardless of availability?
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Historical Article
Health care reform is dead--long live health care reform.
The 1993 Clinton health care reform effort was not the end of reform but the inauspicious start of a fiercely contested round of reform that may take another decade or two to complete. The 1993 Clinton plan was just the latest stage of a battle for national action on health care than began with Teddy Roosevelt's promise of compulsory health insurance in the 1912 presidential campaign.