There's another reason insured people fill the ER--because they have non-critical but emergency problems that need to be seen that day, but their primary care doctor won't see them without an appointment 3 weeks in advance. It's happened to me. I'll never forget waking up one morning and trying to start my day after having had a routine chest cold for a week, but kept becoming out of breath after any activity. I was running a fever. I was worried that I was developing walking pneumonia, so I called my primary care doctor that I had been seeing for 2 years, and couldn't get past the receptionists! They told me that my doctor didn't have any appointments available for at least two weeks, and if I thought I was sick, I should head for the emergency room! At 9am on a friday morning! I work as a veterinary nurse, and we treat our animal patients better than that, telling owners to come down right away if they think their pet is seriously sick at 9am in the morning!

There is an intermediate between the ER and the primary care--it's called urgent care. However, just yesterday I had a not-so-swift experience with THAT. I had something in my eye--a piece of debris that I had been unable to flush out on my own despite all my efforts. I went to three different locations before I found an Urgent Care that would take my insurance (I HAD called around first, and the first one I had went to said yes, they took Blue Cross, but they didn't take MY Blue Cross). I didn't even try calling a primary care Dr, because I knew that would be useless. In addition, the website for the company the manages my insurance was completely unhelpful in trying to find a local urgent care center. So, as a result, I spent 3 hours driving around town one eyed while I tried to find someone who would see me without having to pay cash out of pocket first.

Our health care system sucks, and anyone who thinks differently is blind. We need National Health Care in a bad way, because the insurance companies are robbing us and delivering a flawed product.

I have insurance, and I go to the doctor when I need to. If I call one doctor and they can't get me in that day, then I call the next doctor. I'm not sure I've ever been to the same doctor two times, in my whole life.

I guess some sort of argument could be made for a "primary care" doctor having all sorts of background information on me...but they don't really know anything that has happened to me that I don't know and can't convey.

Of course, I never go to the same mechanic twice, or call the same plumber. I'm not very dedicated to the help -- I'm more of a speed and convienience sort of guy.

I have Blue Cross HMO and am completely satisfied! I think the KEY is WHO is your primary care provider. I have followed my Dr. to three different offices, because the care is great! True, i have called in the morning and he is not available. I then simply ask WHo is? and i have always gotten a same day appointment. I have had to go the ER twice: once after a Bar fight at 3 in the morning (logical choice) and once when my doctor thought i had appendicitis (which got me an immediate CAT scan). So my vote: Two Thumbs up so far for my insurance provider!

Well,if I was still with Kaiser, I could have used their urgent care without a problem or probably got a same day appointment with the first available doc. However, Kaiser premiums have gone up so much recently that I switched to Blue Cross, because everyone raves about them so much. So far I am completely unimpressed, and am considering switching back to Kaiser.

The reason you go to a primary care provider is the one you stated, they have all the info. Though you think you can convey everything to the next doc, I can guarantee you that you wont remember all the info. The last time i went to my primary care doc with a case of allergies, they asked me when was the last time i had such a reaction, which i remembered. they then asked me what i took last time, i remembered something but wasnt sure and when they looked at my chart, they found that they did prescribed what i said but that i had severe side-effects to the med they switched to something else. now if i had to a new doc, i would have had to suffer the same problems. So it does benefit to go to the same doc. Also, doesn't irritate you to convey the history every time to see a new doc?