Abstract
The use of emergency departments for non-urgent care is increasing; creating greater stress for California’s already crowed emergency departments. This thesis analyzes the relationship between an individual’s demographic, socioeconomic, and health care characteristics and the use of emergency departments for routine health care. Sources of Data This analysis uses data from the 2005 California Health Interview Survey from the University of California, Los Angeles. The survey was a telephone survey of a large sample of California residents who were asked numerous health care related questions. I used multivariate logistic regression to identify the effects of certain characteristics on emergency departments for routine health care while controlling for all other variables. Conclusions and Implications My analysis finds that several explanatory variables have a significant effect on emergency department use for non-urgent care. The findings of the regression analysis performed suggest that current reform proposals aiming to increase access to health v insurance and health care services will have the greatest effect on reducing the use of emergency departments for non-urgent care.