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In the example of diabetes, many people are diagnosed when they show later term symptoms that require an ER visit. Since it's chronic, they won't be "cured" of the disease, meaning an ER can be their main mode of healthcare and the main mode of being diagnosed.

You may not understand the nuances of the article you referenced. Take Detroit, one of the cities used to support the claim in the article. The baseline decade used is the 1960s. Detroit has only about a third of the population it had in the 1960s so it's not rational to think they would maintain their previous healthcare infrastructure. Further, much of that population left for the suburbs of metro Detroit, meaning the healthcare facilities being built are just following the population demographics. Add onto that the point that healthcare has changed dramatically over the last 60 years with much more emphasis on outpatient care, and there are rational, non malevolent reasons to decrease the number of urban hospitals




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