Yeah, we know, we've heard it all before. The high cost of healthcare is a very complicated problem with no single solution. It is an important issue, however - literally a matter of life and death - and fortunately there are services and programs in place that help with the problem of cost.
1. Urgent Care Centers Lighten the Load
You have four basic options for healthcare in this country: you can do it yourself, you can call your doctor for an office visit, you can go to the emergency room, or you can visit urgent care or a walk-in clinic. There is no doubt that emergency rooms in this country are at an overload. Hospitals have been closing at an alarming rate, and the remaining ones are packed full of individuals with problems ranging from heart attack symptoms and gunshot wounds, to the sniffles. Patients who evaluate their condition and determine that the wait and much greater cost of an emergency room aren't necessary can visit urgent care for a quick fix for most of the less-serious problems. This leaves extra chairs open in the emergency room for that kid with the asthma to sit in.
2. Urgent Care Centers Save Taxpayer Money
Emergency rooms are run on a combination of government money and the money from patients that are treated. Increasingly, however, people who are treated in emergency rooms find themselves unable to pay the high cost of their bills. When this happens, they struggle for months or years to make payments - the hospital has to hire collection agencies (which means their costs go up, which means YOUR costs go up). After much time in struggle, often many former emergency room patients end up filing for bankruptcy. This costs the emergency room to have to "write off" thousands as lost - money the government will help compensate them for - that's the taxpayer...that's you. Increased use of urgent care centers reduces the number of individuals who will find themselves hit with a massive bill that they ultimately cannot afford.
3. Urgent Care Centers do More with Less
Do you have any idea how much an MRI machine costs? Anywhere between 1.5 to 3 million dollars for the newest ones with the greatest resolution and features (it's just like buying a car, you know). Hospitals and emergency rooms often have more than one. X ray machines aren't cheap either, and neither are ultrasounds, CT scanners, or any of that other big, fancy equipment you see in a hospital. Every piece of equipment, every needle, every drug and bandage - the cost of them is all rolled into the bill you will receive when you need treatment. Urgent care centers rarely have MRI machines, and they often have far less of the other technological perks you'll probably never need as well. Lower overhead = lower costs. This means that everything that an urgent care center does is less expensive than the same procedure done in an emergency room.
Convincing Americans - convincing yourself - to increase their adoption of walk in clinics or urgent care centers is a time and cost saving measure for you, and everyone else in the country.
