Sometimes the Emergency Room is Your Only Option

This is why I am so greatful to live in Canada!

If you get sick evenings or weekends sometimes you have no choice but to go to the ER; everything else is closed.

It happened to us the other weekend. We walked in to an urgent care and they told us that we would have to pay even though we had insurance because they could not call and verify our info. So, walked out and drove over to the ER with my 8 month old son. I cried the whole way! I couldn't believe that! Which resulted in multiple test including a spinal that I knew didn't need to be done!

I'm also an ER nurse, and I see a few reasons why people end up in the ER. First, we have a shortage of primary care docs. They don't make the big $$$ the way specialists do, so less medical students are going into general practice. Second is malpractice insurance and lawsuits. Doctors want to cover their butts, so if you call and say you have chest pain or abdominal pain, they assume the worst and send you in. Third, patients want what they want right now. They know that if they see their primary care doc for a problem, they will be scheduled for outpatient testing that could take days to get results, or they can go to the ER and get their bloodwork, xray, or CT scan done right now.

Ahh, but the point is that a walk in clinic or family doctor requires you to pay to be seen if you have no insurance and if you NEED medical help and don't have the money or insurance (both tend to go hand in hand), then what is the option? The ER. Yes, I've been there. I'm ashamed to say. I made sure not to go during busy times of course and made sure to tell them to please take emergencies over me (a given but it's the polite thing to say) but yes, I've been there.

As a Canadian ER nurse, it most certainly is NOT the only way...except for evenings and weekends - of course! Most of those trips on the evenings and weekends can be avoided though if a person waits and sees their family doctor or goes to a walk in clinic.

Many, many times. It's the #1 reason for my credit being shot - all those ER visits for asthma attacks (that would have been avoided if I'd had access to affordable healthcare). Even WITH insurance, asthma is an uber-expensive disease, so even now there are times I have to use the ER as a way to breathe. It's terrible.

NO. But I just read over my new Health insurance terms started 10/1 and a trip to the ER will cost me $150 and will only be removed ifI am admited.

Of course it is true...it IS the only way to get healthcare if you do not have insurance and sometimes even if you do have insurance that nobody takes...I could rant about this one!