Quote Originally Posted by phesina View Post
That is true that a hospital emergency room must treat everyone who comes in. However, the result is that the ER has become the family doctor for people who don't have health insurance. You have a headache? Kid has the sniffles? Off to the hospital to sit and wait for several hours for someone to see you! This is a phenomenal waste of money and health care resources.
Exactly! And this is why the hospitals and doctors and clinics charge such outlandish prices - to make up for the freebies. I'm definitely not saying this is right, but it will continue to happen. And who takes the beating in the end??? - you and me - paying for it in the form of higher insurance premiums - or cost in general if we don't have insurance.

A couple of years ago I fractured my wrist and arrived at the ER around midnight. When I got checked in I asked the clerk about how long a wait I had, and she said there were patients in the waiting room that had been there for about 5 hours. I just kind of groaned with the thought of that wait, but she said they would take me right back. The ones that had been waiting were no emergencies - a headache, baby with diaper rash, and some other ridiculous "ailments". After my x-ray and my orthopedic surgeon saw me, he had to laugh and tell me that there were some people not too happy with me. It seems that the ones with nothing really wrong and were still waiting , made a complaint that I had been taken ahead of them. They have no insurance, use the ER as their primary care, have someone else footing their bill - and they complain???? What's wrong with that picture??