Uninsured trauma patients may get better hospital care

Lacking health insurance usually means getting worse health care, but that may not be true when it comes to a traumatic injury, a new study suggests. The study, published Wednesday in JAMA Surgery, found that uninsured patients with severe injuries – the kind commonly associated with car crashes, serious falls and gunshots – were significantly more likely than insured patients to be transferred out of hospitals not specializing in trauma care. It's most likely that those patients made their way to trauma centers, hospitals set up to handle such cases and proved to save more lives, researchers say.