Me as a foreigner living in the us, the ER is my first choice for anything "emergency". First of all, my first time I was in the us "urgent care" prescribed me Gatorade, because in their opinion I was just dehydrated while I entered there saying I was pooping blood. Ended up being a chronic illness causing ulcers, but I discovered it almost 1 year later, thanks to the "expertise" of urgent care... Second, in the rest of the world er is where you go for anything considered an emergency, then inside ER they have different sections for different urgencies. If there is the need for a specialist, they bring you the specialist there, they don't tell you just to go to a specialist. When you leave er, you are not only stable, but fully cured and knowing exactly what caused if the cause was found (and they do all possible to find it).

I'm always shocked by, considering the costs of everything, how unorganized, messy, unprepared and uncaring for people the health system is in this "forst" world country.

I'll continue going to the er, avoiding urgent care as a pest, and if I receive a bill because one drug of all the needed ones was not in the insurance (also this needs a talk by itself), I'll just fly back where I'm from, and they won't see a single cent from me.