Emergency room wait times in my area are regularly 8+ hours because uninsured, underinsured, or just plain dumb people can’t or won’t go see their doctor and go to the Emergency room for all their medical care because they know they can’t be turned away. So you have someone sitting in the Emergency room waiting to take a pregnancy test that they could have just bought at the pharmacy next to someone who has had a cold for a week and thinks the ER docs have some magic pill to make them instantly better. Meanwhile they’re also trying to treat things like strokes and heart attacks and major traumas and non life threatening but legitimate emergencies like major broken bones and more acute illnesses. Everyone is miserable and no one wins except the insurance companies.
Emergency room wait times in my area are regularly 8+ hours because uninsured, underinsured, or just plain dumb people can’t or won’t go see their doctor and go to the Emergency room for all their medical care because they know they can’t be turned away. So you have someone sitting in the Emergency room waiting to take a pregnancy test that they could have just bought at the pharmacy next to someone who has had a cold for a week and thinks the ER docs have some magic pill to make them instantly better. Meanwhile they’re also trying to treat things like strokes and heart attacks and major traumas and non life threatening but legitimate emergencies like major broken bones and more acute illnesses. Everyone is miserable and no one wins except the insurance companies.