[Paul-ish]

You will see a lot of people using the (expensive) ER to treat their health issues. The reason they are there in the first place is that they couldn't pay for preventative care, so naturally they can't pay for the ER either. As a society when someone who can't pay ends up in the ER we have two options: treat them anyways, or turn them away.

[codegeek]

Yes but that is due to our current expensive healthcare system where out of pocket costs are just some insane arbritrary number. Most hospitals cannot even tell you a "cash" price until you really push. My whole point is that it is all so expensive BECAUSE of insurance. If insurance was not involved in preventive care for example, all hospitals and doctors would have to compete on cash price and that would lower the out of pocket costs significantly. I bet less people will need to got ER because now they don't need to pay $10,000 for a doctor visit.

[Paul-ish]

Even if a check up were $20 what I've described above would happen.