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0 pointsteej16y ago0 comments

People absolutely go to the hospital to seek treatment thy don't need. We see it in the US already - people flooding emergency rooms with the sniffles looking for antibiotics. That's entirely the reason triage exists, to seperate out the people looking for clinic care and the people with real emergencies.

You are correct about cancer and major surgeries - almost no one is going to elect to have these if they can avoid it. The only exception is obeseity cases where people would rather have a gastric bypass then have to suffer through diet and exercise.

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pwnstigator16y ago

Much of the ER flooding comes from two sources:

1. Uninsured people who go to the ER because they legally can't be turned away there.

2. Panic attacks. Untreated anxiety/panic disorders are a huge burden on the hospitals. Most repeat panic visitors have never had a specialist (a) tell them what they're experiencing, and that it's non-fatal (and that there's absolutely no benefit in going to the ER for a panic attack) and (b) prescribe them medicines that can actually help them. Any guess as to why this is the case? Because those people are uninsured.

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