Objective: To estimate the influence of inadequate access to healthcare services on the rate of Emergency Room (ER) hospital visits in Australia. Method: We take micro-data on different types of healthcare shortfalls from the 2012 Australian Survey of Disability, Aging and Carers, and employ Propensity Score Matching (PSM) techniques to identify their effects on ER visits. Findings: We find that shortfalls in access to various medical services increases ER visits for individuals with mental and physical conditions by about the same degree. Conversely, inadequate community care services significantly predict ER visits for individuals with physical conditions, but not for persons with mental conditions. A number of robustness checks and diagnostics tests are presented which confirm that our modelling assumptions are not violated and that our results are insensitive to the choice of matching algorithms. Conclusions: Unless an individual is in physical rather than mental distress, crisis ER treatment is less often sought or unavailable. Greater attention needs to be given to providing more flexible and appropriate access to health care services in the community setting.