I never could understand why ultrasounds have become routine for pregnancy. If an ultrasound detects an abnormality in the fetus, then the parents to be have to decide whether to abort and try again. If an ultrasound detects twins, so what? Later in the pregnancy there would be evidence of two heartbeats -- same result. What about learning the sex of the unborn? It never seemed to be terribly important until the invention of this expensive procedure. This does not seem to be an important enough consideration to warrant a very expensive and possibly risky-to-the-fetus procedure.
As for the ER problem: Recently one of our elderly gentlemen in my building who is quite well off and has private insurance waited 14 hours to be seen in the ER at one of Boston's finest hospitals. He was suffering from penumonia, and at his age there was a very real danger of death. When he was finally admitted to a bed "upstairs" - more than 24 hours later, he had to spend over four weeks in the hospital.