ERs are expensive for two reasons: 1. You are paying for a standing army. 1 hour of scheduled doctor time is much different than 1 hour of doctor time ready to

ERs are expensive for two reasons: 1. You are paying for a standing army. 1 hour of scheduled doctor time is much different than 1 hour of doctor time ready to deploy in an instant. 2. The ERs need to cover all the non-paying clients. These two items probably feed on each other. Emergency departments are about 1% of total health care costs. They can be a good indicator of other symptoms that are wrong (medical billing is a maze, on purpose[1]), but fixing it won't really address health care costs. [1] http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/22/how-hospital-administrators-hide-the-umbrella.html http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/02/22/how-hospita...