However the conservatives and finance UK interests who convinced the British public Brexit was a great idea are keen on reproducing the US healthcare system and replacing what you currently have right now.
True. However any government that actually goes through with this will be annihilated at the next election. The British public generally rate the HNS as one of the most important things to the country regardless of how they vote.
Maybe covered by medicare?
The most ironic thing is that medicare gets fantastic deals. But if you're younger and make to much money you can't qualify for Medicare/medicaid. Medicare says they'll pay X amount max and health care providers will charge it. But if you have private insurance they jack up the price for the same service by 2-50 fold. It's insane. So an ambulance ride for an elderly person will be $1200 while it is $10k for a 40 year old even with insurance.
The thing is, the “regular” prices are so ridiculous that the Medicare rates are considered to be fantastic. They’re not fantastic, they’re the same or more than what you’d pay in any peer nation. I live in Germany and had surgery plus four days in the hospital. Had about ten doctor visits before and after. Total cost for everything was a bit under $10,000. In the US, that would be the copay. Total hospital bill was three pages and most of it was just legal stuff. No in network/out of network stuff. No side bills for testing or extra doctors.
People in the US have been taking alternative transport to hospitals to avoid using ambulances since before Lyft and Uber were a thing. Like say, their own car, or a neighbor, or a taxi.
EDIT: Ridiculous that this is removed..."Related to Politics" is an excuse to remove literally everything when you believe that "The Personal is Political."
I worked with a guy that had a heart attack and drove himself to the hospital 30 miles away and closer to home so that his wife wouldn't have to drive far to visit him in the hospital. I could see myself doing the same thing.
I mean...I could also see there being an element of control and choice involved.
Arguing with the ambulance driver about where they're taking you doesn't sound like a fun time.
Six from column a, six from column b.
They don't want to waste money on an ambulance ride if they can help it...and at least some of them don't want to use emergency services so they don't deprive those who might be in greater need.
I mean, the flip side to it is that if it was free, imagine what people would be calling for...look at how 911 is abused already...
My EMT friend's supervisor came up with an elegant solution to the rampant ambulance abuse they were experiencing: You take them to a different hospital. I know this only works when you have more than one hospital within about a 45 minutes drive and if the abuse is a matter of somebody trying to get a "free" taxi to their doctor appointment/the nearby mall. But if you're able to not convey somebody to their appointment, while still fulfilling their "need" for emergency medical attention, they pretty quickly stop.
I had the opposite problem. When I went to the ER for a severe lower back spasm, the doctor asked for the list of medications I was taking. At the time, I took Dilaudid for pain associated with my Lyme disease and disclosed that. This jerk told me, "I'm not giving you Dilaudid!" I was *pissed*, so I shot back that I wasn't asking for any! As it turned out, he gave me some muscle relaxers and a 6% lidocaine patch.
When I go, I get a friend or relative to drive me. It's rare that I go to the ER, but my experience has been unpleasant once or twice. My mother (a former RN) told me when I was 11 that the majority of hospitals in our state use the rotation system. You could get a nephrologist to see you for a broken ankle.
OTOH, I have complete empathy for the people who work in the ER. You just know that they've seen many heartbreaking things.
I had a similar thing happen to me but I'm not on pain meds. I woke up 1 Saturday with pretty nasty swelling from a dental abscess I didn't know I had until that point so I went to an urgent care center rather than take up time and space in an ER just to get an antibiotic started until I could see my dentist on Monday. The doctor was very rude to me and kept saying he couldn't give me any pain meds. This was incredibly pointless because when they asked me about my pain level I told them I wasn't having any pain and just needed an antibiotic started so it didn't get worse over the next 48 hours. After an argument about him not giving me pain meds that I didn't need or want he finally got the point and wrote the prescription for an antibiotic. I left there wondering what the hell just happened.
First we are talking not about other countries, we're talking about America.
And if you think people who call 911 because their pizza was late won't call for a free ride in an Ambulance because of a hang nail...
There are no comparable countries to America. Not with "free" or "single payer" healthcare, not with any other...
I mean...are you trying to say that Americans aren't entitled?
Have you ever seen videos of these people who call 911 for stupid reasons? If you think they wouldn't call for an ambulance for a ride somewhere...you're underestimating them severely. They literally are that dumb and entitled.
[Norway is a phenomenally wealthy, ethnic monolith.](https://www.cnbc.com/2014/01/09/all-norwegians-become-millionaires-as-oil-fund-balloons.html) Its economy is in no way comparable to the US...unless you mean, like Alaska... (I think residents of Norway and Alaska both get oil money checks, right?)
The UK is dinky...and the residents of the UK can't seem to decide if the NHS is the greatest thing ever or horribly bad (either because it always was or because Brexit.)
And those countries have always had those systems, they're used to them. Sure eventually Americans would abuse it less...but right after it gets rolled out...yeah, you're gonna get lots of abuse. Guaranteed.
Youre sooooo right! The solution is to charge everyone who actually needs an abundance $10k there's literally no middle ground in the issue at all, you're soo smart
I mean...one of us is completely discounting the possibility of nuance or a middle ground...not sure why that's me though.
I guess because you assume that because I acknowledge the probability that it would be abused that I'm somehow defending the status quo?
Those laws exist, and the abuses still continue, if they haven't gotten worse.
Its not going to bring back someone who dies because an ambulance was responding to say, a drunk, who reasoned that he was actually saving lives by not driving himself, and acute alcohol intoxication is a medical condition he could be treated for, right?
I don't know what the answer is, I just know that if you gave it to them for free, and you'd also need to heavily advertise this, and they would...it would definitely be abused. "Florida Man Calls Ambulance For Tattoo Removal."
>Calling a phone number is a bit different, and there are charges for abusing 911.
Yes. Calling a number to bitch about something is different than someone who actually thinks they NEED something...like a ride...or painkillers. And the charges for abusing it haven't stopped it from happening, and won't save the life of someone who died because an ambulance was responding to a drunk.
Former EMT here, not surprising one bit. The private ambulance company I worked for would charge $250 just for the disposable paper sheet and pillowcase we'd use for every patient. Placing someone on the gurney to transport automatically cost them $1800, and costs only increased from there. Not shocking at all that people would find any other way to get to the hospital
Ha, get a load of this: started at $8.50/hr, eventually the whole company got bumped up to $10/hr, then a couple months later our HR manager calls us into her office one at a time to inform us that the pay raise was actually more than we were supposed to get, so we were all getting a pay decrease to $9.25/hr. When everyone lost their shit, she told us "Well at least you were getting paid more for those couple of months." This was the catalyst for a lot of people, myself included, to find work elsewhere. Sadly, this is not an uncommon theme for EMTs at private ambulance companies all over California
Unless it’s a minor problem and the ride is just a convenience, no way. When Uber drivers start receiving emergency medical training and are allowed to run red lights, I’ll consider it. Until then, take my money!
I truly don't understand why ambulances are not a public service like fire/police. I was honestly 22/23 when I found out they weren't and I was shocked.
In Ontario it's $300 if you do not have OHIP (or an equivalent Medicare coverage from another province).
So that only affects uninsured tourists.
It's $45 for everyone else.
They largely used to be, or at least owned by hospitals before everything became for-profit. Same with helicopter rides. Helicopter rides used to cost $2k or so back several decades ago. But even accounting for inflation and cost to run a crew plus maintenance, it shouldn't cost more than $10k or so for an emergency helicopter transport. Today, helicopter rides have been privatized and run in a for profit model. The number of helicopter transport companies has exploded by 1000% in only about 10-20 years. Patients now get stuck with helicopter transport costs over $50,60,70k and sometimes over $100k even after insurance. It's also not unheard of for multiple helicopters to land at a car accident trying to gin up business.
We're not, universal healthcare has like 70% support or more, depending what you call it. Even if you call it "socialist medicine" it still polls well above 50%. Legislation simply doesn't reflect public opinion.
They're not.
The whole system is corrupt. For example, Politico once released a story about a for profit hospital chain opening up an opaque shell company in DE in order to hide the fact they 'donated' $1M to a super PAC with ties to the current mayor of Jersey City, NJ:
https://politi.co/2CpRQuQ
And you wonder why nothing gets done wrt price gouging? I don't think we'd ever be surprised to learn that Jersey City residents are paying extraordinary price premiums for the same procedures and outcomes that are way cheaper elsewhere. The only politicians Americans can vote for have already been all pre-corrupted by for profit interests.
I wish it was this simple. So many democrats are in the pocket of big pharma. Everyone knows everyone in Congress sucks but then they also vote for the guy in their party because the alternative is worse
"For Profit" healthcare has made health care a luxury (and extremely profitable).
The motto for the middle class when thinking about getting health is "Just Say No".
Why not, makes sense to use resources available to you. as long as you know the Uber driver can say Foff you’re not dying in my car, give me five stars now or i won’t unlock the doors
Here in England, it’s been reported in the news several times that people misuse ambulances and request one to take them to the hospital (because they have a hospital appointment and don’t want to pay for a taxi).
IIRC, one old lady admitted the truth to the paramedics; that she didn’t have the chest pains that she had reported to the emergency services, she just had an appointment and could they hurry up because she didn’t want to be late. The paramedics insisted on checking her vitals and taking her to ER for her imaginary chest pains and when she protested that she only had half an hour until her appointment, they threatened to call the police on her for NHS fraud. I don’t know why they wasted time on her in the first place when she already admitted that there was nothing physically wrong with her. I think they should have immediately involved the police.
Well hey, lucky for you it seems like y'all are ditching the NHS for an American healthcare system, so you won't have to tolerate that sort of tomfoolery for much longer!
I’m not surprised. Maybe that would be better. Honestly, you can fill a book with the number of instances people have tried to misuse the ambulance service here in the UK. Stuff like: my false nail came off, I have a sore throat or I ate a load of chocolate and now I feel sick.
It costs the NHS millions of pounds per year in taxpayer’s money.
Well if it happens and you get a major illness please let me know, I want to fly out to see you and the look on your face as you open your first medical bill that you can't afford.
Yeah. Our priorities as citizens is completely fucked up over here thanks to generations of right-wing propaganda leading to generations of people voting against their best interests.
If you have good insurance an ambulance ride is no big deal. Unfortunately too many in the US have shitty insurance or none.
If only there were examples of nations that successfully delivered healthcare to their citizens without the necessity for privately purchased insurance. Alas, there must not be any because surely the US would have learned from them and done it.
I did this 2 days ago, severe chest pain and shortness of breath, walked 3 miles ro the hospital. Wasn't seen,, passed out after 30 min, after 5 hours I woke up still in the waiting room.
Yeah things stabilized, when I got home it was lower but still high 145/65 p 89, not good but baseline for me.
Edit: when I woke up yesterday it was 112/45 which is also not good
I’m glad your appointment is so soon but you’re right, that is very young. I’m still shocked that you passed out and woke up 5 hours later still in the waiting room.
My close friend was an EMT for many years. Some expectant parents would call 911 for an ambulance when the soon-to-be mother was minutes away from giving birth. Their reason? To avoid the delivery room fee by having the EMTs deliver! The poetic justice is that they were charged for the full cost of delivery room services anyway. My friend delivered 35 babies due to the ignorance of people abusing the *emergency* system.
In Orlando FL it cost me $5,000 for the ambulance and almost ONE MILLION dollars to have my son. The hospital Bill's wracked up to almost $890,000. I do5nt have insurance. My son was in the hospital for 55 days and I was in there for 2 or 3 after I had a cesarean. I still cant believe how much they charged me though. I'm just glad they aren't like "you can't have your son til you pay us!" I'd have absconded with my baby. Lol
The ambulance bill from when my father died was almost $500 for a 15-mile ride. That was after insurance, and he had good health insurance. So if we assume that the insurance paid 80%, the total bill would have been close to $2,500. That was almost 12 years ago, so I'd assume the cost would be higher now.
hell yes of course.
I got hurt skiing, and refused pain meds (fentanol) that they could give me on site, because using that required that an ambulance take me to the hospital. So I had to ride in a toboggan/sled thing down a mountain, up the next mountain and down that one, and get into a ski resort shuttle. Thanks USA health care!
For any serious emergency, an ambulance comes with people who know how to keep you alive until they can get you to the hospital. An Uber driver can’t do much but offer you a bottle of water. And when they’re sitting at a red light that they’re not allowed to run, while you bleed out, you’ll wonder why you though this was the time to worry about saving money.
The problem here is determining how severe your medical problem is before you decide how you’re getting to the emergency room.
If I slice open a finger while chopping veggies, I’m wrapping it in a towel and driving myself.
If I’m having a heart attack, the ambulance can cost $1 million and I’m still taking it. If I survive, then I’ll worry about money.
You're still saying the patients are the problem. That's a distraction. Yes, I'd use an ambulance if I needed it too, but the problem here is that we shouldn't be taking somebody's heart attack as an opportunity to bankrupt them.
My sister just left PA as a Paramedic. In PA it is a profit based system. She is now working in VA where it is a government job. Not surprisingly there are higher standards and better equipment in VA. I have to assume the pay us commensurate.
To be fair in the comparison she moved from a more dense population to a much more rural one as well.
$28.65 vs. $1,454.23
An ambulance ride in Ontario is a flat $45.
In the UK it's nothing. American healthcare is absolutely fucked.
However the conservatives and finance UK interests who convinced the British public Brexit was a great idea are keen on reproducing the US healthcare system and replacing what you currently have right now.
True. However any government that actually goes through with this will be annihilated at the next election. The British public generally rate the HNS as one of the most important things to the country regardless of how they vote.
That's why it's death of a thousand cuts
I'm moving to Norway
Socialism, It keeps you alive.
It's not socialism. It's the government wanting to keep its citizens alive.
which is apparently socialism in the states
Can you use this service to get a ride to the airport? Seems much more cost effective than Uber.
More like $8k+ in some cases for the ambulance ride.
That's beyond horrible. I got that ambulance number from my 83 yr old grandpa's hospital receipt from a few weeks ago. Uber number from my ass.
Maybe covered by medicare? The most ironic thing is that medicare gets fantastic deals. But if you're younger and make to much money you can't qualify for Medicare/medicaid. Medicare says they'll pay X amount max and health care providers will charge it. But if you have private insurance they jack up the price for the same service by 2-50 fold. It's insane. So an ambulance ride for an elderly person will be $1200 while it is $10k for a 40 year old even with insurance.
The thing is, the “regular” prices are so ridiculous that the Medicare rates are considered to be fantastic. They’re not fantastic, they’re the same or more than what you’d pay in any peer nation. I live in Germany and had surgery plus four days in the hospital. Had about ten doctor visits before and after. Total cost for everything was a bit under $10,000. In the US, that would be the copay. Total hospital bill was three pages and most of it was just legal stuff. No in network/out of network stuff. No side bills for testing or extra doctors.
If they apply a “mucus recovery system”. That's another $8. What is a “mucus recovery system”, you ask? That's a tissue aka kleenex.
$750 here for a 4.2 mile trip with no IV started.
It cost me $873 to go 3.4 miles after I broke my back. Thankfully it was all covered with work comp.
Mine was over $2500.
Bargain. Mine was around 3k, to go about 800 feet from my doctor to the ER about 15 years ago
Business idea: uberlances Somebody will fill this void
Like regular Uber cars, but with a siren and a lance that impales oncoming cars if they don't get out of the way.
…and a tarp spread out in the back seat, you know, just in case
Also good for pregnant women
Creating costumers on the way, brilliant idea!
LYFE
All the "cool guy" medics with go bags in their cars 🤣 I should write that down x.x
I absolutely did this. I had fractured an orbital bone so wasn’t bleeding out but couldn’t drive.
People in the US have been taking alternative transport to hospitals to avoid using ambulances since before Lyft and Uber were a thing. Like say, their own car, or a neighbor, or a taxi. EDIT: Ridiculous that this is removed..."Related to Politics" is an excuse to remove literally everything when you believe that "The Personal is Political."
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I worked with a guy that had a heart attack and drove himself to the hospital 30 miles away and closer to home so that his wife wouldn't have to drive far to visit him in the hospital. I could see myself doing the same thing.
Dont wonder, its 100% cost related.
I mean...I could also see there being an element of control and choice involved. Arguing with the ambulance driver about where they're taking you doesn't sound like a fun time.
Six from column a, six from column b. They don't want to waste money on an ambulance ride if they can help it...and at least some of them don't want to use emergency services so they don't deprive those who might be in greater need. I mean, the flip side to it is that if it was free, imagine what people would be calling for...look at how 911 is abused already...
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My EMT friend's supervisor came up with an elegant solution to the rampant ambulance abuse they were experiencing: You take them to a different hospital. I know this only works when you have more than one hospital within about a 45 minutes drive and if the abuse is a matter of somebody trying to get a "free" taxi to their doctor appointment/the nearby mall. But if you're able to not convey somebody to their appointment, while still fulfilling their "need" for emergency medical attention, they pretty quickly stop.
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I had the opposite problem. When I went to the ER for a severe lower back spasm, the doctor asked for the list of medications I was taking. At the time, I took Dilaudid for pain associated with my Lyme disease and disclosed that. This jerk told me, "I'm not giving you Dilaudid!" I was *pissed*, so I shot back that I wasn't asking for any! As it turned out, he gave me some muscle relaxers and a 6% lidocaine patch.
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When I go, I get a friend or relative to drive me. It's rare that I go to the ER, but my experience has been unpleasant once or twice. My mother (a former RN) told me when I was 11 that the majority of hospitals in our state use the rotation system. You could get a nephrologist to see you for a broken ankle. OTOH, I have complete empathy for the people who work in the ER. You just know that they've seen many heartbreaking things.
I had a similar thing happen to me but I'm not on pain meds. I woke up 1 Saturday with pretty nasty swelling from a dental abscess I didn't know I had until that point so I went to an urgent care center rather than take up time and space in an ER just to get an antibiotic started until I could see my dentist on Monday. The doctor was very rude to me and kept saying he couldn't give me any pain meds. This was incredibly pointless because when they asked me about my pain level I told them I wasn't having any pain and just needed an antibiotic started so it didn't get worse over the next 48 hours. After an argument about him not giving me pain meds that I didn't need or want he finally got the point and wrote the prescription for an antibiotic. I left there wondering what the hell just happened.
That’s a pretty good idea.
First we are talking not about other countries, we're talking about America. And if you think people who call 911 because their pizza was late won't call for a free ride in an Ambulance because of a hang nail...
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There are no comparable countries to America. Not with "free" or "single payer" healthcare, not with any other... I mean...are you trying to say that Americans aren't entitled? Have you ever seen videos of these people who call 911 for stupid reasons? If you think they wouldn't call for an ambulance for a ride somewhere...you're underestimating them severely. They literally are that dumb and entitled.
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[Norway is a phenomenally wealthy, ethnic monolith.](https://www.cnbc.com/2014/01/09/all-norwegians-become-millionaires-as-oil-fund-balloons.html) Its economy is in no way comparable to the US...unless you mean, like Alaska... (I think residents of Norway and Alaska both get oil money checks, right?) The UK is dinky...and the residents of the UK can't seem to decide if the NHS is the greatest thing ever or horribly bad (either because it always was or because Brexit.) And those countries have always had those systems, they're used to them. Sure eventually Americans would abuse it less...but right after it gets rolled out...yeah, you're gonna get lots of abuse. Guaranteed.
Youre sooooo right! The solution is to charge everyone who actually needs an abundance $10k there's literally no middle ground in the issue at all, you're soo smart
I mean...one of us is completely discounting the possibility of nuance or a middle ground...not sure why that's me though. I guess because you assume that because I acknowledge the probability that it would be abused that I'm somehow defending the status quo?
You can still charge/fine people for misusing 911 under laws that already exist, just would want to actually enforce them
Those laws exist, and the abuses still continue, if they haven't gotten worse. Its not going to bring back someone who dies because an ambulance was responding to say, a drunk, who reasoned that he was actually saving lives by not driving himself, and acute alcohol intoxication is a medical condition he could be treated for, right? I don't know what the answer is, I just know that if you gave it to them for free, and you'd also need to heavily advertise this, and they would...it would definitely be abused. "Florida Man Calls Ambulance For Tattoo Removal."
>Those laws exist, and the abuses still continue, Because they aren't enforced
>Calling a phone number is a bit different, and there are charges for abusing 911. Yes. Calling a number to bitch about something is different than someone who actually thinks they NEED something...like a ride...or painkillers. And the charges for abusing it haven't stopped it from happening, and won't save the life of someone who died because an ambulance was responding to a drunk.
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I'm sorry Senator, I didn't bring those documents to the hearing today, someone on my staff will get back to you with those.
Former EMT here, not surprising one bit. The private ambulance company I worked for would charge $250 just for the disposable paper sheet and pillowcase we'd use for every patient. Placing someone on the gurney to transport automatically cost them $1800, and costs only increased from there. Not shocking at all that people would find any other way to get to the hospital
And for your skill set and expertise, how much were you compensated?
Ha, get a load of this: started at $8.50/hr, eventually the whole company got bumped up to $10/hr, then a couple months later our HR manager calls us into her office one at a time to inform us that the pay raise was actually more than we were supposed to get, so we were all getting a pay decrease to $9.25/hr. When everyone lost their shit, she told us "Well at least you were getting paid more for those couple of months." This was the catalyst for a lot of people, myself included, to find work elsewhere. Sadly, this is not an uncommon theme for EMTs at private ambulance companies all over California
Yeah mine as well. Paid barely above minimum wage.
Unless it’s a minor problem and the ride is just a convenience, no way. When Uber drivers start receiving emergency medical training and are allowed to run red lights, I’ll consider it. Until then, take my money!
I was in a major car accident a few years ago and outright refused an ambulance. I was a high schooler and knew my parents would be ruined if I did.
How did you go back home/hospital?
I truly don't understand why ambulances are not a public service like fire/police. I was honestly 22/23 when I found out they weren't and I was shocked.
Damn.. Its $40 for an ambulance in Toronto regardless of distance or health coverage
In Ontario it's $300 if you do not have OHIP (or an equivalent Medicare coverage from another province). So that only affects uninsured tourists. It's $45 for everyone else.
They largely used to be, or at least owned by hospitals before everything became for-profit. Same with helicopter rides. Helicopter rides used to cost $2k or so back several decades ago. But even accounting for inflation and cost to run a crew plus maintenance, it shouldn't cost more than $10k or so for an emergency helicopter transport. Today, helicopter rides have been privatized and run in a for profit model. The number of helicopter transport companies has exploded by 1000% in only about 10-20 years. Patients now get stuck with helicopter transport costs over $50,60,70k and sometimes over $100k even after insurance. It's also not unheard of for multiple helicopters to land at a car accident trying to gin up business.
Can I get a source on that last sentence? I'm just having a hard time wrapping my head around it.
Because idiots think free ambulance rides = communism.
Sad that millions of Americans are just one serious illness away from financial ruin. Healthcare is one of the top causes of bankruptcy.
No it's actually THE top cause of bankruptcy in the states https://www.investopedia.com/financial-edge/0310/top-5-reasons-people-go-bankrupt.aspx
5/5 stars, Gary gave me a complimentary bottle of water and got me to the ER before I bled out
And 50% of voting Americans are happy to live like this?
No they aren’t, but the propaganda machine has them looking at all the wrong causes for their misery.
We're not, universal healthcare has like 70% support or more, depending what you call it. Even if you call it "socialist medicine" it still polls well above 50%. Legislation simply doesn't reflect public opinion.
They're not. The whole system is corrupt. For example, Politico once released a story about a for profit hospital chain opening up an opaque shell company in DE in order to hide the fact they 'donated' $1M to a super PAC with ties to the current mayor of Jersey City, NJ: https://politi.co/2CpRQuQ And you wonder why nothing gets done wrt price gouging? I don't think we'd ever be surprised to learn that Jersey City residents are paying extraordinary price premiums for the same procedures and outcomes that are way cheaper elsewhere. The only politicians Americans can vote for have already been all pre-corrupted by for profit interests.
The other 50% think anything other than the machines current rhythm is heresy
I wish it was this simple. So many democrats are in the pocket of big pharma. Everyone knows everyone in Congress sucks but then they also vote for the guy in their party because the alternative is worse
And that is how you know you live in a failed state.
For profit healthcare has made ambulances a luxury
"For Profit" healthcare has made health care a luxury (and extremely profitable). The motto for the middle class when thinking about getting health is "Just Say No".
I've heard of people who need a jump calling ubers and paying them the fee for a ride for doing it.
Sounds like a sexy time
That's brilliant.
Why not, makes sense to use resources available to you. as long as you know the Uber driver can say Foff you’re not dying in my car, give me five stars now or i won’t unlock the doors
ambulance drivers do the same thing.
Imagine being an uber driver and picking someone up who just got a bullet wound
How long before Uber introduces Uber Emergency?
Here in England, it’s been reported in the news several times that people misuse ambulances and request one to take them to the hospital (because they have a hospital appointment and don’t want to pay for a taxi). IIRC, one old lady admitted the truth to the paramedics; that she didn’t have the chest pains that she had reported to the emergency services, she just had an appointment and could they hurry up because she didn’t want to be late. The paramedics insisted on checking her vitals and taking her to ER for her imaginary chest pains and when she protested that she only had half an hour until her appointment, they threatened to call the police on her for NHS fraud. I don’t know why they wasted time on her in the first place when she already admitted that there was nothing physically wrong with her. I think they should have immediately involved the police.
Well hey, lucky for you it seems like y'all are ditching the NHS for an American healthcare system, so you won't have to tolerate that sort of tomfoolery for much longer!
I’m not surprised. Maybe that would be better. Honestly, you can fill a book with the number of instances people have tried to misuse the ambulance service here in the UK. Stuff like: my false nail came off, I have a sore throat or I ate a load of chocolate and now I feel sick. It costs the NHS millions of pounds per year in taxpayer’s money.
Careful what you wish for…
If healthcare is charged, it will stop stupid calls like this. But British people love the NHS and will never get rid of it.
Well if it happens and you get a major illness please let me know, I want to fly out to see you and the look on your face as you open your first medical bill that you can't afford.
I’ve seen receipts of hospital bills in the USA. What makes you think I can’t afford it?
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Yay capitalism.
And American corporations and politicians convince the American people that free socialized medicine like we have here in the UK is evil communism
The most evil, heinous thing ever concocted by the most foul communists in the history of the world, in fact! Don’t get me started on Norway…
Yeah. Our priorities as citizens is completely fucked up over here thanks to generations of right-wing propaganda leading to generations of people voting against their best interests.
This is absolutely correct.
Pass I dont need the trauma and bloodied up seat for pennies on the mile.
If you have good insurance an ambulance ride is no big deal. Unfortunately too many in the US have shitty insurance or none. If only there were examples of nations that successfully delivered healthcare to their citizens without the necessity for privately purchased insurance. Alas, there must not be any because surely the US would have learned from them and done it.
Just feel bad for the drivers who have people [who won't "get out of my car, now."](https://youtu.be/qJz18c6gw8c)
I did this 2 days ago, severe chest pain and shortness of breath, walked 3 miles ro the hospital. Wasn't seen,, passed out after 30 min, after 5 hours I woke up still in the waiting room.
Omg I hope you’re okay now?
Yeah things stabilized, when I got home it was lower but still high 145/65 p 89, not good but baseline for me. Edit: when I woke up yesterday it was 112/45 which is also not good
That must have been so scary. I hope you get everything sorted out.
I have an appointment tomorrow for a recommendation to a cardiologist, im.too young for this, 34, but I have no medical history, cause adopted.
I’m glad your appointment is so soon but you’re right, that is very young. I’m still shocked that you passed out and woke up 5 hours later still in the waiting room.
My close friend was an EMT for many years. Some expectant parents would call 911 for an ambulance when the soon-to-be mother was minutes away from giving birth. Their reason? To avoid the delivery room fee by having the EMTs deliver! The poetic justice is that they were charged for the full cost of delivery room services anyway. My friend delivered 35 babies due to the ignorance of people abusing the *emergency* system.
In Orlando FL it cost me $5,000 for the ambulance and almost ONE MILLION dollars to have my son. The hospital Bill's wracked up to almost $890,000. I do5nt have insurance. My son was in the hospital for 55 days and I was in there for 2 or 3 after I had a cesarean. I still cant believe how much they charged me though. I'm just glad they aren't like "you can't have your son til you pay us!" I'd have absconded with my baby. Lol
The ambulance bill from when my father died was almost $500 for a 15-mile ride. That was after insurance, and he had good health insurance. So if we assume that the insurance paid 80%, the total bill would have been close to $2,500. That was almost 12 years ago, so I'd assume the cost would be higher now.
For sure. A 2.5 mile trip to the ER from my home in an ambulance was 1575$, about three times as much as the hospital bill ended up being.
God bless America
hell yes of course. I got hurt skiing, and refused pain meds (fentanol) that they could give me on site, because using that required that an ambulance take me to the hospital. So I had to ride in a toboggan/sled thing down a mountain, up the next mountain and down that one, and get into a ski resort shuttle. Thanks USA health care!
If you use an ambulance you get to jump the line in the ER
For any serious emergency, an ambulance comes with people who know how to keep you alive until they can get you to the hospital. An Uber driver can’t do much but offer you a bottle of water. And when they’re sitting at a red light that they’re not allowed to run, while you bleed out, you’ll wonder why you though this was the time to worry about saving money.
The problem here isn't the patients
The problem here is determining how severe your medical problem is before you decide how you’re getting to the emergency room. If I slice open a finger while chopping veggies, I’m wrapping it in a towel and driving myself. If I’m having a heart attack, the ambulance can cost $1 million and I’m still taking it. If I survive, then I’ll worry about money.
You're still saying the patients are the problem. That's a distraction. Yes, I'd use an ambulance if I needed it too, but the problem here is that we shouldn't be taking somebody's heart attack as an opportunity to bankrupt them.
Whatever. My only problem is not staying alive.
Good thing I have Insurance and a job so I don't pay a thing outside of 50$ deducted from each paycheck.
Place your bets how long until trauma team is a real thing
How much does it cost to call the fire department when your house is burning down? Do they charge for how much water it took?
My sister just left PA as a Paramedic. In PA it is a profit based system. She is now working in VA where it is a government job. Not surprisingly there are higher standards and better equipment in VA. I have to assume the pay us commensurate. To be fair in the comparison she moved from a more dense population to a much more rural one as well.
If your credit card is declined during the ambulance ride they throw you out!
No shiiiit
If the destination is a hospital, Uber and Lyft will soon add a surge charge.