Yeah, ER is almost never the right place. But if you do go to an ER, make sure it’s attached to a hospital. The free standing ones are notorious for predatory billing and will take your first born after saving them. And your insurance will fight to not cover it.

Urgent care and minute-clinic type things can be good. Primary care physicians are typically best, though they may be difficult to get an appointment for.

Urgent care facilities commonly double as ERs. In that case, I believe they’re legally required to get you to sign a specific form before they can charge you for an ER visit. Speaking from experience, it’ll just about 10-40x the rates and they’ll still charge you for an urgent care visit on top. Also speaking from experience, check your insurance plan before doing this. My insurance card said $150 copay for ER visits, but the plan was actually $150 + 10% (still unbelievably good in freedomland), plus they refuse to cover any of it anyway and the appeals process literally takes the better part of a year.

That said, it can literally be the difference between life and death. Fighting insurance, while a huge PITA, is much better than a dead child. It’s just the sad reality we live in, in order to have checks notes poor health outcomes and healthcare quality tied to whatever your job (if you have one) happens to offer. 🦅🇺🇸🎆

Arrest records are public. Even if you’re innocent or the charges are dropped or whatever, they still smear your reputation by putting your mugshot up. It can be a good thing too, since it cuts down on the number of people arrested quietly with no disclosed reason.

No sir, officer