The face of health care has changed over the last couple of decades. People are encouraged to take more responsibility for their own health, like following healthy diet tips, getting regular exercise, and looking for health advice online, before heading to the doctor.

Part of the change has been brought about because of the lack of access to affordable health insurance, and ultimately affordable health care. Prevention has taken a front seat in how we approach health care now. If you can prevent the illness through a healthy lifestyle, then you will not have to shell out the big bucks for medical care to treat the health problem.

Of course, no matter how cautious you are with your health, there is always the risk of injury or illness. What do you do when you get sick or injured? If you are like many Americans you head to your local urgent care center.

According to a recent article in Forbes magazine, the number of local urgent care centers has increased by 6% to over 7,000 centers since 2018, and the industry now generates about 18 billion dollars a year. These medium care facilities are growing in popularity because they are filling in the gap between affordable health care and skyrocketing health insurance costs.