There are free and cheap clinics popping up in lots of places. Even some wal-marts now have independent clinics in them.

So why not use the e-room for non-emergency issues? Expense is the big one. Far too Americans already go to the emergency room for non-emergency use and that pushes costs up for people with real emergencies. If you have a cough, don't go the damn e-room for that. Are you sneezing? Don't go to the e-room. Save that triage slot at the e-room for somebody that's having serious chest pains.

Overuse of the e-room for non-emergency issues is bad and it's getting worse. In 1996, 67 million Americans went to the e-room. In 2006, the number was 119 million. That just don't jive with natural rate of population increase. The last thing we need to is to tell more people to go for more non-emergency issues.

What do you think happens when health care costs drive health care out of the price range of more and more people?  If people start to learn that emergency rooms won't turn them away, and they can get out of their bill pleading poverty, why won't they go?  If the American culture is one driven by reacting to crisises that happen, rather than proactively working to limit them, why wouldn't you see this happen?

Start to learn?  They've already learned.  I just showed you some numbers on it.   Why doesn't everybody do it?  Because we are not all the same.

US needs universal health care like Canada. If they stopped putting so much damn money into defence they could afford it without too much of a tax increase.

I agree emergency room docs don't seem to ever specialize in anything, it's like all they know is the sheer basics, I'm sure they'll know if you have a cold.

Your anorexic survivor in your avatar wishes that they don't.   Waiting several months on a waiting list for triple bypass heart surgery could prove as fatal as his anorexia survival tactic.

And that is why things are happening.  People are finding they have to do it, to survive.  As more people don't have health coverage, they rely on the emergency room.  I had this happen with myself.  I had back issues, and no medical coverage and employer wanted a note for clearance.  Guess where I ended up?  I ended up in the emergency room, because I didn't have a physician, due to the lack of medical coverage.  They did x-rays, and I got a note which cost me the job.  The hospital put me on charity case as a result of this.  I had to end up on Medicaid to get the needed surgery for my back.  Due to the fact I waited, I likely have permanent nerve damage in my left foot.

And you didn't apply for Medicaid before going to the emergency room why? If you apply, go to the emergency room or have your surgery and are then approved after the fact, you get retroactive coverage from the application point.

I had been denied a number of other times, because I was on unemployment (election year stuff, it got extended to people).  And I had others tell me they couldn't find me anything.  I ended up at a clinic at the hospital.  Until I had Medicaid surgery wasn't seen as an option.  But I was able to press through with an insurance company and secure it.   I had applied before and was denied.  This was before the back problem I had tried.

True man. The current private health care system is definitely good if you have money. I'm Canadian and my dad needed knee surgery recently and was told it would take 4-6 months to get it done in Canada...well he got it done in 1 week in the US. 

If I ran a country there would be a two-tiered health care system. Everyone gets the basic health care, but if you have money you can pay your way to the front of the line for surgeries/care.