charlie-xavier-or-professor-x:
In the USA, it’s 100x cheaper to take an Uber to the hospital instead of an ambulance.
I don’t know if this is true or..
Like, having to pay for an ambulance that is taking you to the hospital? That doesn’t make any sense. What kind of distopian world is that?It costs thousands of dollars to ride in an ambulance
In America some people with chronic health conditions like epilepsy literally have to wear medical IDs that say “don’t call an ambulance/911”. Some well-meaning person calling an ambulance for you will turn into a thousand (or couple thousand) dollars that YOU are on the hook for, even though you didn’t make the call. So, PSA: if you see someone having a seizure, look for a medical ID! You should only call an ambulance if: the person is elderly, pregnant, or the seizure lasts more than 4 minutes. Otherwise, wait for the seizure to pass, then ask the person if they want an ambulance when they regain consciousness.
wtf
And people are against health care reform.
Hell I’m gonna just call an uber now whenever shit hits the fan
It depends where you are and if your ambulance agency is public or private. My fire department which runs EMS doesn’t charge the individual for rides. It’s funded by the tax payers of my town. 95% of us are volunteers, myself included.
I remember working a job on my FD ambulance with a patient freaking out because she needed to go to the ER and didn’t have the money to pay for the ambulance ride. One of the medics assured her that we don’t charge, we’re a service to the community. Just like you don’t have to pay for firemen to come put out a fire.
Now we also have private ambulances which mostly do non-emergent medical transports between facilities. Hospital discharges to nursing homes and things like that. Those get pricy a few thousand per ride depending on the mileage. We have to get signatures from our patients basically giving our company permission to bill their insurance for the ride. The fucked up part is that a ride from the hospital to a nursing home less than one mile away racks up close to a grand.
TL:DR public ambulances don’t charge, they do it through taxes. Privates do because it’s all about money. FDs and Vollys do it because we love it and for the love of god please call an ambulance if your friend passes out from drinking too much because they are actively dying.
^^ Yes thanks, particularly that last bit. Better broke and alive than dead.
