It's also that so many people who go to the ER don't really have an emergency. Sometimes these are people who just don't want until the next day (or week) to see their regular doctor. Sometimes they are people who have nowhere else to go, and they know the ER can't turn them away.

I avoid the ER unless I think I am putting my life at risk by not going. I cut my finger open earlier this year, it probably could have used stitches but I was not going to subject myself to the ER experience for that. I taped it up, kept it clean, and it healed. There's a scar, but I'm not a hand model.