I can tell you why the ER’s in Florida are overcrowded. They are slammed with illegals who use the ER as their family doctor. Don’t know if it’s still the case, but a doctor told me years ago that if someone was illegal, they weren’t even allowed to ask for a name. Believe me, when I was there, I was taken in fee first. I had feinted and was unknowingly bleeding internally. But it took a long, long time for them to get to me and I’m lucky to be alive. It’s not that they weren’t moving fast. They were. But the huge number of sniffles and sore throats from illegals concerned they had covid prevented faster service of my life threatening but undiagnosed problem.
It’s not just illegals.
Medicaid patients who aren’t emergent use the ER because they don’t like the even crappier practioners Medicaid patients often have to use and/or don’t want to have to wait for an appointment.
And, thanks to EMTALA, nobody gets turned away.