Someone once said an ambulance isn’t your personal taxi to the hospital, like my brother in fuck what do you think it is then?
At the risk of getting myself a rain of downvotes here:
An ambulance is an expensive and somewhat rare mini-ER on wheels that's designed to help a small team of expensive and somewhat rare specialists stabilize a dangerous condition on a patient until it reaches a hospital. Since it is important to keep those somewhat rare vehicles and teams in reserve for when they are suddenly urgently needed, you really shouldn't use one as a taxi to the hospital if whatever your condition is doesn't call for that.
(Asking enormous sums of money of the patient for the privilege is IMHO still wrong. The decision to use an ambulance or not should not be based on whether you can can easily part with a couple thousand dollars.)
I don't believe there is a problem of people needlessly calling ambulances.
If that was the case, the appropriate response would not be to charge everyone bank breaking fees for it.
So triage the issue remotely and send the appropriate response.
Stubbed toe? Reimburse a ride share.
Fractured arm? EMT in a lower cost van.
Urgent trauma? Full rig and EMT crew.
In more civilized countries, they would charge you for abuse if you call an ambulance when you don't need it. But even the fine is less than this number.
There is NOTHING expensive about the people in the back of that ambulance. They get paid less than I do working at a grocery store.
There is in the sense that they cannot easily be replaced. Whether they actually get paid appropriately for that is another story.
I'd be more ok with this if the expensive specialists on board were actually making bank instead of really low wages.
This comic is such bullshit.
Ambulances are $3k, minimum. If you need helivac you're look at $20-30k.
Due to reasons I took an ambulance ride. For one and a half miles. From one hospital to another. They billed my insurance $6K
And both of those EMTs probably have a second job.
I had a seizure in a gas station. When I regained consciousness in the back of an ambulance I told them I asked them not to take me anywhere and to let me go on my way because I couldn't afford the ride. The look on their faces told me a lot about how shitty our country is. They knew I was refusing medical attention I probably needed because I couldn't afford for them to take me to a hospital I couldn't afford treatment at, even with health insurance.
I’d totally watch a comedy/slice of life/horror anime about a Japanese person having to go live in America. If for no other reason than to see a whole anime where most of the cast are Joseph Joestar level English speakers.
My mom had to take an ambulance to the hospital a few years ago. She later got a bill for $2800 although medicare paid for some of that. Turns out the hospital she went to had its own associated ambulance service which wasn't the ambulance service that gave her the ride. She later got a second bill from the hospital's ambulance service, also for $2800, even though they hadn't even given her the ride (medicare naturally enough did not pay for any of this bill). My mom was going to pay this second bill because I guess her generation just pays every fucking bill that shows up in the mail no matter what, but I put my foot down and insisted that she didn't. I had a lot of fun calling them up and yelling at them about this bullshit. They refused to retract the bill and sent it a few more times, but eventually they gave up and didn't send it to collections.
A fun side note to this story is that the hospital system in question became in danger of bankruptcy and put itself up for sale. A vulture capitalist firm noticed that the value of just the hospital system's real estate holdings was a lot more than the sale price, so they purchased it and ran up a ton more debt paying themselves more than a billion dollars in bonuses. Then they spun off the real estate as a separate entity to which the hospitals started paying rent, which increased their operating deficit and debt still further. Eventually the hospitals declared bankruptcy and were closed down, leaving an entire city (of poor black people, natch) without any hospitals at all. Capitalism is just so awesome.
That's amazing.
$1,400 is actually super cheap for an ambulance ride. I think they're typically closer to $14,000
Usually more 3-5,000 for the ride. More medicine extra but most ambulance rides dont need extra.
Also somehow the paramedics doing the care are getting like minimum wage...its such a scam.
I checked and 2 years ago the average cost was indeed about $1400:
Probably more now, although I doubt 10× as much...
I think there are two prices There's the price they charge if you are paying "out of pocket" and the price they invoice insurance. It is possible for both the $1400 and $14000 ($6k is more likely) to be true.
Didn't factor in the hospital bill, the doctor bill, the nursing staff bill, the ems bill, the er doc bill, or the overnight fees... and then there'll still be more and all separate.
The paperwork bill for generating all the paperwork. The admin bill, to review the paperwork. The convenience surcharge, for the cost of generating paperwork.
Gets out of the hospital, goes to a new school in this strange new place, gets shot, winds up back in the same hospital
Groundhog Day 2 is a bit grittier than the original.
Lol, what a steal. Or maybe this is the 90ies
$1400? Damn I hope I get that lucky if ever need an ambulance ride.
The last ambulance ride I took was $5,000 (US); that was after the insurance write down. Distance was about 5 miles and no "special treatment" other than a back board.
Are y'all great yet? Asking for a friend.
We passed great a helluva long time ago.
Whoa, I heard that in the US you have to pay for an ambulance, but $1,400? And this is with insurance?
Can be. The numbers are basically made up. It’s not uncommon for people to get their X-rays done at a chiropractor and take those to the Dr because it’s cheaper and insurance refuses to pay or it costs more even with insurance. I know someone who realized his wife’s insurance copay was more than if he paid cash for their kids birth. The insurance situation is insane and very complicated. Everything you hear about it is true and happens regularly. I tell people that I would rather have socialize medicine just for getting rid of the paperwork and nonsense. Unfortunately greed and racism are standing in the way.
What's the point of insurance then? Sounds like a waste of money.
Fear. The insurance is not for "oh what if I break an arm and don't have much cash in the bank" it's "if I get cancer, or need to spend even a week in the hospital, all my life's savings will be taken by this. Better give boatloads of cash every month forever to protect what I have against this."
Then the insurance company does its best to wriggle out of paying anyways.
The point, at least in America, of insurance, is to make outrageous profits
When I was in college and on my own for the first time I tripped on the stairs and tore a ligament in my foot. I thought I'd broken something and the school called an ambulance. The ambulance drove me 1 mile to the hospital, where I was given an ice pack and crutches and then turned out with no way to get home (I had to hobble my way to a store to pull out cash to take a bus home).
This entire ordeal was $3000 after insurance. My mom then called me and bitched me out for not taking a taxi.
Capitalism turns an ordeal into a tragedy
$1400 is unrealistically cheap to the point where I’m pretty sure it’s part of the punch line here
There's a reason why people often opt for an Uber or just drive themselves to the hospital.
I made the mistake of calling for an ambulance once, and that's the day I learned that they are owned by private companies in the US. I couldn't afford the bill, so I had to put up with seven years of bad credit before the charge finally disappeared off my record and I was allowed to own a credit card and buy a vehicle without paying for it in full with cash.
On the bright side, weed is legal and abundant. And unlike in Amsterdam, you don't even have to smoke it because it comes in so many different forms! So instead of going to the doctor, I just drink and vape to my health.
God I hate living in this country.
The US healthcare system is so broken… In Europe government pays nearly everything necessary for the injured or ill people. Kick out your clowns.
Japan was mentioned so my brain kept trying to do right to left
Only $1400 for an ambulance ride? Must be the co-pay on insurance. My last ambulance ride cost me ~$5000 and that was in 2008.
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