BOSTON — Even though thousands more Massachusetts residents now have health insurance under the state’s health care mandate, they are still seeking care at hospital emergency rooms.

The 2006 law was supposed to ease pressure on emergency rooms and save money by encouraging people to go to their primary care doctors for non-urgent health needs.

But according to The Boston Globe, patients with state-subsidized insurance have continued to use the ER at a rate 14 percent higher than Massachusetts residents overall.

Those with the lowest incomes, who formerly received free care in emergency rooms and now pay a nominal fee, are using ERs at a rate 27 percent higher than the state average.

Health-care leaders say one reason is that there are too few primary care physicians in the state.