This has vastly less to do with the cost than the level of care they have to be prepared to provide. I get that people really want to beat the medical cost hors

This has vastly less to do with the cost than the level of care they have to be prepared to provide. I get that people really want to beat the medical cost horse, but it’s sometimes helpful to understand it, first. People use the ED as a PCP across the spectrum because they don’t know better, because they can’t find other options, and sometimes because they don’t have other options - and all of those things tend to cost the hospital, state or insurer vastly more than the patient. Further, tacking on “serious chronic mental disorders” is basically a non-sequitur and could’ve been replaced with “diabetes” or “broken legs” or “tooth pain”.