[delegate]

That's if you go to the emergency room - they will keep you waiting (closer to 2 hours than 6), when you have no apparent life threatening condition.

If you have a serious issue, like a heart condition or a broken bone or vomiting etc, you will be processed much faster.

I know that because I've been in both situations - once with pain in my left ear (waited 2 hours, got a prescription to ibuprofen) and another was chest pain and high blood pressure - processed immediately, all blood work done in minutes, etc.

I guess a lot of people go to the emergency room because they just need a doctor to confirm that they're all right.

[tigroferoce]

Same here in Italy. I waited 8 hours to be visited at ER when I had a foot injury while climbing, but in the meanwhile I saw a lot of way more serious patients to go first.

My daughter broke her nose while playing and she had nose surgery and she had to stay a couple of nights in the hospital.

In both cases everything has been completely free (AKA paid by high taxes). Our current system has a lot of issues, but I wouldn't trade for a more private one. For sure I wouldn't trade it for the american system.

[Cthulhu_]

> I guess a lot of people go to the emergency room because they just need a doctor to confirm that they're all right.

This is correct and an issue all over the world; without a proper network of local doctors and whatnot (with reasonable waiting times), people will jump to the ER, which is 10x as expensive as a local doctor. But when people have a pressing need for care, they don't have much other options.

Healthcare is hard and expensive.