You have a point, Moonlight. Far too may people go to the emergency room when making a regular appointment or going to a walk-in clinic would be the wiser course of action. It wastes a shitload of money and resources.
I know some countries with socialized health care give people an account for health care, or something like that (possibly South Korea). I'm not sure how the system works, but I think it goes along the lines of, for standard treatment, people have a given amount of money set up that they can spend. When they realize that going to the ER for something that a walk-in clinic could take care of costs a lot more, they stop going to the ER for non-emergencies.