Ambulances charge? Like taxis?
Weird America. Weiiiiiird.
Had to look up what ambulances cost where I live in Ontario, Canada. Looks like it’s $45 if the trip is deemed to have been medically necessary by hospital physicians and you have a valid health card. Otherwise it’s $240. There are certain exemptions for the $45 as well. Like when my daughter had to be transferred to a different hospital, I don’t remember being charged for that ambulance ride?
I’m envious of how reasonable that all sounds.
I think you need to be an uninsured American to really appreciate this joke. Ambulance coverage is $55/year where I’m from (Melbourne Australia), including air transport when needed. I’m in the USA now but ambulance rides are covered as part of the copay for ER visits ($100 on my plan).
I am an insured American with reasonably good insurance, still received 3000 dollar bills each for the two times my son had to take an ambulance to the ER, one was literally transported from one facility to a different facility on the same medical campus, without my presence so I couldn’t decline and just take him myself. I wish my insurance would’ve covered those transports.
It’s really bad in the US. I was a caretaker for both my parents. My mom broke her hip and had to go from the hospital to a rehab nursing facility. The social worker at the hospital coordinating with me asked how she is getting there.
Why don’t you transfer her?
Well we can but it’s not covered. If you can transfer her you’ll need to sign a waiver and she should probably be in a wheelchair during the ride so she doesn’t hurt her hip that is still healing.
So I shouldn’t transfer her?
Well if you can keep her comfortable for the ride you can, you still need to sign a waiver in case, for liability.
Well it’s going to be uncomfortable in my car and it’s high up, she can’t even step up that high and I can’t get a wheelchair in there, I have seats.
Ok well transport is like $1,000 out of pocket. Because insurance doesn’t cover it. Also it’s a third party transportation service.
What the fuck? Also ended up being a rickety old van with shitty shocks. Had a wheelchair lift and such but not exactly a $1,000 experience.
Yeah, I did volunteer EMT for a bit, and folks would call us up to help for this exact situation. Wasn’t super common, was generally folks who knew us or were aware of our existence, which may sound crazy. But we’d help transport people. And they’d usually drop a donation to the squad too, almost like it wasn’t about the money as much as it was about sending the money to some company versus a community organization.
EMTs have volunteers?
I unfortunately know someone who owns a metro company and that twat is rolling in cash, dude took 700k in ppp money and it was forgiven
EMTs having volunteers?!? that makes me beyond pissed
Yeah, the squad I was with is celebrating its 70th anniversary this coming April, so it kinda predates the issues we’re having now. It has remained a valuable community service, except it’s become an unfortunate necessity, or at least a way to help people avoid the massive costs associated with receiving medical care. Or at least in part.
And I volunteered because I liked to do it. We were fortunate enough to have a lot of folks locally who had the extra time to do it on a volunteer basis, and we ran in excess of 1,000 calls a year, which is a massive cost savings for each of those individuals who needed it. We would staff community events, so they wouldn’t need to pay to have an ambulance on-site.
Personally, I found it very rewarding. I backed out during COVID when my wife was pregnant with kid number two, shit was a bit uncertain, and I gotta look out for my family first. I would never want to work the job of an EMT. One 12-hour shift a week, and one 48-hour weekend shift every few months (on top of being treasurer which was a thankless and awful job) was plenty for me.
I’d rather have arranged something myself. But of course she was getting the boot that day, the day after hip surgery. So any additional days “might” not be covered.
This was end of last year maybe into this year. My dad passed a few years ago and dealt with similar issues and it wasn’t as bad. Certainly has gotten way worse since the annoying orange took over.
Heard stories of uninsured elderly patients without the ability to pay just being dropped off at homeless shelters with IV bags still attached. Skilled nursing facilities getting denies for coverage.
Shortly after she got there I had to do two appeals. She got denied as soon as she arrived. I ended up paying a portion out of pocket at like $300 a day. The rehab team wrote letters, I had them do a home inspection to prove it was unsafe. Still got denied over and over. They wear you down by denying first than hoping you don’t appeal.
Finally gave in even though she wasn’t as safe. Had to send her back to the hospital again in 2-days because she couldn’t get up to even pee and got a UTI.
Anyhow it was royally fucked. She ended up dying from cancer in the next few months. They found that came back very aggressively during her UTI stay.
Still have collectors asking for that nursing home stay and transportation. They can eat my ass, that’ll come out of her estate if anything is actually leftover.
Sorry this is long, just venting.
It’s disgusting, dude. I just can’t understand it. Recently got denied myself, nothing remotely life threatening, but it’s just frustrating, because they are banking on me not appealing. And I won’t, it’s $160, and I know I’d waste hours of my time appealing. So you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Obviously just makes me more sympathetic toward men of action. Just doesn’t need to be this way, but hey, some people need yachts and private jets.
It’s 0,- here (germany) 😁
(Or, if privately insured: more, but you get it back anyway)
That’s cheaper than uber.
Dunno, i don’t use destructive us-american companies :)
But “0” is cheaper than A LOT of things. E.g. DDR5-RAM
$55 is too much, I’ll take an Uber if I need to go to hospital.
Your charge will exceed that easily when you bleed out all over their car.
“Riders are responsible for damage they cause to the interior or exterior of a vehicle, such as damage to upholstery or body components.”
https://help.uber.com/riders/article/vehicle-damage?nodeId=0e102bc9-9310-4e1c-9456-0510f410eb7b
*snicker* “body components” *snicker*
Does Uber have cleaning fees like AirB&B now?
Where you getting such a cheap tow?
