You have hit the mark, @cryptotax. The web currently offers a lot of help both in the vast amount of information we can gain for everything from symptoms to the meds & supplements we are taking and their interactions. I think that it offer even more in the future.

Currently one of the biggest problems with online medicine is that it isn't secure/private. Anything you discuss online is gradually becoming more and more likely to be intercepted by anyone, particularly with Homeland Security on the loose. Mental health issues are particularly touchy. In the US neither your general practitioner nor any specialist you see has access to your mental health diagnosis unless you tell them or give permission to have the records opened.

The infrastructure of an online system is in the process of being set up here in the US and Canada to connect care facilities but currently you can talk to an intern (someone in the later stages of becoming a dr.) yourself at an online site and have someone guaranteed to get back to you within the hour (I've done this with the people dr. and with the vet). For a small fee everyone wins, you can get some good advice for your specific problem and the intern earns a small fee to help pay the bills. The fees are somewhere between $35 and $100 and some say that you won't be billed unless you are satisfied and you are also given the opportunity to tip the responder if you particularly find the info helpful. The two I've used and found particularly helpful are https://www.medhelp.org/ and http://my.justanswer.com/?area=&op=4 I particularly like that you can send a photo if you need to.

There are currently some online aid programs and downloadable apps (I am told) to help deal with mental health issues and studies have been done that indicate that most people are more likely to be honest and disclose more about themselves to a computer program than they are to a real person. You can see why that can lead to better care if the program is capable of providing it. Computers are supposedly quite good already for mood/anxiety disorders like depression and bipolar problems and some anxiety disorders like PTSD and panic attacks.

I understand the reasons behind hospitals but in some ways I am glad for insurance. It's made it so that they send you home as soon as you don't need to have serious care whether by personelle or by the available machinery.