"The system is a trip wire...."

I’ve been thrown under the bus by various not-all-that-serious maladies over the last few weeks. A trip to an Urgent Care will help you see the US health care system in all its appalling for-profit glory, but for me I was just grateful that I didn’t have to wait for hours before being seen. I got lucky to arrive in between rushes. The people working there, including the obviously harried Physicians Assistant (there are no actual Doctors in these places), who spent a grand total of 60 seconds diagnosing my issue before running out to deal with the next poor sod in line, were clipped and professional and almost empathetic if you squinted hard enough. They were clearly doing their overworked and underpaid best. Kudos to all of them. Urgent Care centers are the new normal, and aside from forcing you to get sick during normal business hours, are still better than the dreaded alternative. The Emergency Room strikes terror in the hearts of anybody who has ever been in one. Horror stories of 12 hour wait times are legion. Stepping into an actual American ER is like being slapped in the face with a dead fish. You’re now in a third world nation. Be prepared to be placed on a gurney in the hallway and ignored until they run out of gurneys.