The reason that you have to wait 5 hours in an emergency room to see a docotr is because the ERs are being flooded with people who misuse the resource at hand. The fact that you had insurance makes no difference to the people who are seeing patients, they see them based on the degree of the emergency. ER were not meant to be treated like docotrs office were colds and aches can be treated relatively quickly and the patients can get in and out ina timely fashion. Places like Med Plus are great for things like that. The ER should be used like they were intended, for emergencies, but for the past couple of years it has become a glorified primary care office, and people misusue it.
If you have a true emergency (car accident, leg in a chainsaw, open broken fracture, etc) then the ER will see you and they may ask if you have insurance but they will not refuse to see you. They can't.
As to the young family with kids, there is aninsuarnce program in Alabama for those people (AlaKids or something like that) that will take care of those expenses. There are programs available if you look and ask for them.
I know several physicians in the Shoals who have not been paid by Medicaid for the past four months. People wonder why doctors are refusing to accept new patients with Medicaid, and they never hear the truth. Docotrs have expenses (buidlings, suppliess, utilites, and employees) and how are they supposed to pay their bills when one of their biggest payors can refuse to pay them for months at a time? It is a disgrace, but more government intervention is not going to fix it.
The economy may be slow, but we have had years of growth, it was bound to slow down. Clinton did not balance the budget, he shifted monies from somewhere else (namely Social Security) to help balance his budget, and he raised taxes. No nation can ever be taxed in to prosperity, which is what we are seeing now. Sooner or later it will come back to haunt you. Add the costs of the war, increased social programs, and increasing price of fuel and you have a disaster in the making.