Well, honestly, doctors can only do so much too. Serious abdomen pain can be gas or something serious. You can cough hard enough to fracture a rib. Chest pai

Well, honestly, doctors can only do so much too. Serious abdomen pain can be gas or something serious. You can cough hard enough to fracture a rib. Chest pains can be acid reflux or a heart attack: I had gastritis when this happened to me. And this is a good deal of the issue: You don't know how serious it is until you go to the doctor. Now, this doesn't cause all of ER misuse, but we aren't doing anything to make that better. A doctor won't see you if you can't pay upfront. This is the same problem with urgent care: Either pay upfront or don't get helped. The ER, though, will bill you. Which does mean that if you are poor - especially just over the income level to get help with a lot of expenses - you either go to the ER when you need a doctor or you don't get seen and have to wait until it IS serious enough for the ER. We can solve this by making sure everyone can very easily afford health car (I no longer live in the US: My out of pocket is $300 per year, and this includes necessary prescriptions, doctors, physical therapy, some dental stuff, and so on). The rest is paid in taxes, which are less than federal + state + health insurance was in the states: Nevermind having to pay a deductible before the out of pocket. (I know my GP will bill me, by the way). But another way to handle this is to have something akin to urgent care on hospital grounds - a place that folks can see a doctor/nurse practitioner for non-emergency things and get billed later.