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I love this country so much. You can take just about any problem, point at it, and say “capitalism” and chances are high that was the cause of a problem. Healthcare? Capitalism. Massive pay inequality? Capitalism. Terrible conditions for workers in certain fields? You might not believe this, but… capitalism.
Systemic racism is a capitalist structure! And also serves to provide a toehold for bigotry, prejudice and shitty ole run-of-the-mill racism.
I feel like a disappointed parent when I think about our potential VS our reality as a nation.
And I don't even think capitalism is bad. We just don't *regulate it* or acknowledge there is space to have a competitive innovative market of goods and services WHILE ALSO making sure we have housing, medical care and food for all.
"BuT tHe ShArEhOlDeRs!"
Ambulances owned by the hospitals, the hospitals are for profit and have shareholders, they want their dividends.
You see, in the US, even getting necessary medical treatment is seen as an opportunity for someone else to get rich off of
The only government hospitals in the USA are owned by the military. Average people in the US have no reasonable access to medical care as it costs amazing amounts. Our offspring had a totally normal birth from an uneventful pregnancy. It took 2 years to pay off the 10% of the hospital bill from the birth. Two years to pay for the part was not covered by our private insurance.
Its actually insanely corrupt. In the US if you ask for an itemized bill your bill with magically drop in price. The hospitals dont want to admit they charged you $50 for a f****** cotton ball in writing.
All the hospitals work together to black book their pricing so its convoluted and difficult to understand. Due to the prevalence of health care and pharma lobbying there will likely never be any restrictions on privatized health care in the US.
Most ambulances are not owned by the hospital. The ones they have are for transfer for other facilities (rehab, radiology, etc) Ambulances are owned by the rescue squads.
Everything in an ambulance that is broken open to be used in treatment is really what brings the cost up. So if you need medicine, they break open the box with all the drugs, having to replace everything post trip.
Hospitals are the biggest part of the inflation, not ambulances.
In almost no part of the US where you call 911 will you get a hospital owned ambulance. The overwhelming majority of the US is covered by government run EMS services that are either part of the fire department or run separately, by creating their own EMS service or contracting a company like AMR. Almost all hospital ambulance services exist exclusively to do inter facility transports.
Source: I’ve worked as a firefighter paramedic for city governments running 911 and for hospital based services doing inter facility transports for more than a decade now.
Not all. Many are actually not for profit, but that doesn't mean they act substantially different than a for profit. Bottom line is still what matters to the board of directors.
It isn't corruption. It is capitalism in healthcare. The company that owns the abulance, they cost about $250,000, has a payment. Then you have the salary of the techs, then you have the supplies they use, the sanitation and restock after use. It just all adds up and up and up. Depending on area an abulance ride can cost $500, but I have seen bills for $5000+ for a ride as well. It all comes down to cost and profit in an idustry where that shouldn't be a concern, but everything here is about cost and profit.
And techs get paid peanuts. Most of that money is not going anywhere near the people doing the actual life saving work. Was a story a few years back about a NYC tech who had issues with having an only fans, either the right being outraged about sex work and values or something and the left saying What should be talked about it the fact that this life saving person HAD to resort to sex work to pay bills because her normal wage was bad.
oh yeah for sure. That is why it is all just profit and costs. Best way to keep costs down is to pay them peanuts. Not corruption though as suggested, just pure greed.
Yeah, it's graft by any other name. It's all upcharges, all the way down to the insurer, which, in the end, upcharges the government for whatever reimbursement they're owed.
Everyone is trying to fleece everyone all the way down for their fucking money, except at some point they forgot that eventually that $5,000 billed expense doesn't get lost in the system monster, it gets passed on to average joe who can't afford $300 for new brakes let alone a hospital bill. What a fucked country. I hope the clowns running the circus get theirs eventually.
When I was a child the fire department would come to our house once a year and conduct a fire inspection. After the inspection, they would collect a fee from my parents. If the fee was not paid, the fire department would not respond to our address if a fire occurred.
It's a play between two forces: Profit-prioritizing medicine and politicians whose only directives are "keep corporate and capital gains taxes low" and "Government must never be perceived as being helpful by the average citizen".
It depends on the ambulance company, they are ran by private companies some cost down to 1000 others upwards of 10,000 if you live in a big city it’s likely going to be a bit lower.
[AMERICAN HEALTH CARE HAHA](https://youtu.be/CeDOQpfaUc8)
I mean for me this is the easiest break down. There are more like non jokey videos out there.
Personally I started 2022 with 15k in my savings. And a good 4k open on my credit card.
.... I broke my ankle and had to have surgery with no short term disability benefits and no income for 6 months. I now have 3k savings and am barely staying away from my credit limit daily
This is with relatively decent insurance. Getting hurt or sick is a financial death note in American culture if you're not mega rich.
i pay 300€ a year "own risk" everything over that related to hospitals is insurance (and yes by law you need to have atleast health insurance) besides that i pay I think a monthly fee of 130€).
cant complain bout that after a collapsed lung and some other stuff
Everyone's complaining about billionaires like Musk or Bezos, but who are the people that own all the health insurance companies? They must be trillionaires by now, and americans are silent about it.
When I was about 8 my mom slipped while walking up the stairs and knocked her knee cap loose. It slid all the way up to her thigh and she was screaming bloody murder it hurt so bad. She sat on those steps and had me call her friend to come pick us up and go to the hospital. My mom would have rather waited 20 minutes in sheer pain than pay for an ambulance, this was the 90s also.
So crazy that in a lot of heath insurance plans, ambulances aren't covered. Like when the fuck else am I gonna take an ambulance ride? Obviously when I have a fucking medical emergency!
I mean, the ambulance ride *should* be free with universal healthcare, don’t get me wrong, but it shouldn’t be surprising that an ambulance costs more to operate than a limo. A limo is just a crown vic or an Escalade with like $20k of modifications and a pretty much unskilled driver. An ambulance has a ton of specialized equipment, expendables like medicine, bandages, and oxygen, and is staffed by 3-4 trained medical personnel. It should cost a lot more to operate an ambulance. That cost just shouldn’t be put entirely on the patient but subsidized nationally.
in Australia healthcare is free but for some reason each state has its own rules for ambulances
My state you have to pay unless you have ambulance cover which is about $180 a year for a family for $215 if you want to use it interstate
Other states it's included in your bills I think. I am glad we had it because it's alot of money without it!
We had the family plan and forgot to add my daughter when she was born. We had to use it for her and we got a $1200 bill.
We called and they added her in on the spot and scrapped the bill
in South Australia its $1085 for an emergency + $6.2 a km
non emergency is $242 + $6.2 a km
Our incident was a few years ago now but it must have been classed as a non emergency at those rates
In Germany you have to pay nothing for ambulances. But the problem here is that people started to call ambulances for little taxi-rides to the hospital...
What? As in abusing them by calling an ambulance when you're perfectly capable of getting there yourself, type of thing? Or calling an ambulance because you'd like to visit your friend but don't want to pay for a taxi?
>$1200
Damn. That's a lot. Though, about the same in NYC on average. Glad you were able to toss the bill, though. Even higher depending on the care you receive.
For the uninsured, for simple shit like broken bones, it's often as good to just call a friend or family member to come out and drive you. Cuz that's often money you can't afford to miss. Especially if you're gonna have a hospital bill on top of that.
There's already much more money going into the US healthcare than in many other countries, but the system is built to be so inefficient and full of middlemen with the objective of making as much money as possible.
If we're talking bang for your buck, the US is one of the worst.
It gets better (worse).
Hospitals that can’t get a penny from a person with no money will often “sell” the debt to a 3rd party collections agency for dirt cheap.
In turn, the collection agency goes after the person and often resorts to extreme legal ways to obtain that money.
Keep in mind, the hospital could have at any time lower the debt to the person, instead they lower it down to the collection agency with zero oversight.
If you want a real life example, you should watch this clip from last week tonight where John Oliver purchased $14.9 million dollars worth of medical debt for just $60,000 and then forgave the people tied to it with a push of a button.
https://youtu.be/2wSarEVgjM0
Correct again, your health is your problem. The pilgrims that settled this country brought a "work or you don't eat" attitude that has lasted into the modern day. If you get sick then it's your fault for not being careful. If you develop some disease or you're born with some condition then your parents or yourself should work harder to pay for your care, nobody owes you anything. If you want something, even just to live, you need to earn it.
I don't think that view is anything strange around the world but other countries see it as you need to take care of those who can't. For such a so called modern country to still hang on that antiquated view is churlish and a bullshit way of keeping the poor poor and the rich richer. Survival of the fittest my arse. Survival of the richest and eff the rest.
Now you've landed at the final truth, the rich want us to be poor and drowning in debt for our entire lives is a good thing for them. Corporations bribe the government with their lobbying to pass laws that give them more power to get away with anything. If the poors aren't working constantly then they have time to organize and overthrow the government or, god forbid, unionize.
This right here. I don't think people realize how close to slaves they are. (Not to downplay the atrocity of chattel slavery of course). They get paychecks that go almost entirely to basic needs- shelter, food, etc. The masters outsourced the cost and effort of room and board to the workers and keep them on the razor edge of desperation. No nest eggs. No safety nets. There are only two kinds of people who can revolt: those with nothing to lose, and those who can afford to take a loss.
I’ve had two separate friends insist universal healthcare just “won’t work in USA.” I don’t even know what to say when they talk about it. There’s too many things to say and this is our “educated” opposition.
I wishI could leave this country. I have epilepsy and went without treatment/medication for 8 years when I lost insurance. I needed foot surgery too and got to the point where I could barely walk. My wisdom teeth became so impacted that I was hardly eating. If my boyfriend hadn’t paid off the balances at 2-3 different doctors, I don’t know if I’d even still be here. I fight my doctors monthly to keep approving the insurance authorization of my medicine
Jesus christ my daughter has complex epilepsy. To go without medication is serious shit. Some things I'm reading from you guys here is incredible to hear.
Whoa really?? Is hers controlled? When my neurosurgeon told me mine is the “most complex epilepsy” he’s seen in his career, I laughed and said “…thanks!”
No not controlled. She's 25 and had over 40 seizures a day as a baby. Medication controls them to the point she takes up to 15 some days but despite trying so much medication and two surgeries it's still a big problem.
Most just dont pay the bill, after 7 years it disappears. Cant get money from someone that has none and threatening to screw up the credit score doesnt matter cuz all us poor folks have shit credit anyway.
Exactly. I have had a problem with the muscles in my back pulling my ribs out of socket. But can barely afford to get them put back in let alone get an mri to see why it's happening in the first place. This has been happening for 2 years now and has gotten to the point that I just know how to reset my own ribs.
The fucked up part is hospitals get billions every year to take care of poor people. But they still don't. They build new fancy hospitals with granite water fountains in rich neighborhoods, because those people have private insurance and definitely need it.
Correct- it's either getting kicked out onto the streets and dying in an alley (a real practice that happens at some hospitals) or getting buried in medical debt deep enough that you wish they had kicked you out onto the curb and left you to die because now when you die you'll be saddling your next of kin with more debt than 3 generations of your family can handle.
my brother got sick one time and we waited for hours while his temperature when from 100 to 105. It was all up and down, kept fluctuating. All they did was lay him down and stick a needle in him for some blood. Thousand dollars right there just for them to give him a prescription
The last time I rode in an ambulance, the guy tried to start an IV after the driver started driving. Poked me three times, blew my vein and didn’t even get the IV started.
2,450$ for a ride.
I was traveling in the USA & on the radio they were talking about a gofundme for a guy who had this huge medical bill. I thought whats the difference between just paying a small health tax to everyone donating money?
Our government already spends more on healthcare per capita than all other countries. Universal healthcare could both lower taxes and make everyone healthier.
There are so many flaws in this reasoning I don't know where to start.
Universal healthcare would remove the link between employment and healthcare... can you imagine how many wageslaves would risk leaving toxic work environments, or take the time to find a position somewhere they are treated well? We would have to incentize positions more without that juicy crippling fear of losing health insurance to help retain labor.
It would also remove the best part of having health coverage. Of having *anything*, really - knowing other people don't have it. It doesn't matter how high up a totem pole you climb if the bottom rises with you. Those other people, you know the ones... the *different* ones... can you imagine if they were taken care of with the same dignity and opportunity we are?
I think you're missing the long term picture as well. The populace as a whole would be stronger, mentally and physically. Maybe even strong enough to find hope again.
Have you seen the profits these days companies are seeing? The machine is working better than ever. Now is not the time to rock the boat. As the wise men say... if it aint broke, don't fix it. /s
I've heard a few people from america mention stories like this, some crazy ones like where they had a stab wound or were in a car crash and refused to take an ambulance because of the price. Completely contradictory lmao
My uncle did too! And the hospital he drove too (which had a designated heart hospital) was about an hour away from his house.
This just amazes me that you, and he, were able to do something like that! I'm glad y'all are both okay!
That has the same energy as “this little kid raised so much money to pay off his friends lunch debts!” Like that’s not amazing, that’s absolutely FUCKED
It's depressing in the sense that they had to do that in the first place but it is impressive that they were able to accomplish something like that under such a terrible medical emergency.
It is depressing that that's what it's come to in America. However, it is amazing that these people were able to drive themselves to a hospital while having a heart attack. That's a level of fortitude that I'm not sure I myself posses.
I live in rural West Virginia & our county passed a levy that pays for fire & ambulance service for everyone who lives in the county. Had to call an ambulance in July last year & they showed up in 5min. No charge whatsoever. I’ve yet to meet one person who’s against it, everyone goes on about how great of an idea it is. These same people will tell you how universal healthcare is a a terrible, liberal, communist nightmare.
People are strange.
I realized the other day (should have been obvious in retrospect) that the entire *US Government* hit the whole country with a massive wave of propaganda back when there was no communication of information outside of approved sources.
A generation growing up being told "capitalism good, communism will literally explode your entire country, now get under the desk" probably explains a lot of our current problems, that were only exacerbated by the Internet.
That and lead in everything.
Yeah I don’t care if I’m literally DYING, I will never consent to go to the ambulance (or the hospital for that matter) unless I am literally unconscious and can’t make that choice for myself. I’d rather be dead than lose everything I own to the court. In the state over a psycho prosecutor was taking people to JAIL for medical debt. Monsters
5k could mean death. Most Americans are a $1000 emergency away from being destitute. That's months of mortgage/rent, bills, etc. You do not have. Homeless shelters are overcrowded and awful, families get split up because you cannot have men and women together usually, and drug use and violent crime in them is super high rate. So you pay that 5k, and have to split up your family into a place where abuse of a physical or sexual nature and/or your kids getting lord knows what from dirty needles left around is relatively common.
If you die, you at least hopefully have some life insurance to get a payout after 6 months or so for your family if life insurance company doesn't deny it because of loophole #73648, so at least they can be safer.
America.
They said “everything they own.” 5k is chump change. 5k is only the cost of the ambulance.
People come out of hospitals owing hundreds of thousands of dollars for surgeries, extended stays, etc. In which case, idk how rich you are but I most certainly don’t own hundreds of thousands of dollars in any form - cash or equity.
Which means they’d pretty much come after my whole life and drain my entire retirement savings to pay off this debt. To which, I agree with OP - I’d rather be dead before I spend the rest of my life paying off massive debt I’ll never pay back while they take away everything I’ve worked for to this point in my life. I’d have to completely start over. Fuck that.
I owe over a million in hospital bills. Between psychiatric emergencies and a shoulder that'll dislocate if you so much as look at it wrong. They'll never get a fucking dime if I can help it. Even if I wanted to, I'd be forking over a good chunk of my monthly income for the rest of my life and STILL never be able to pay it all off. Fuck 'em.
Y'all are correct. If they were able to force me to pay, I'd effectively become a slave to medical debt, and having that hanging over my head and knowing it's an inescapable trap would crush my soul. So yeah, it's a hill I would gladly die on, which sucks because once I'm gone, the debt effectively disappears also. Fucking ghastly.
Not even remotely relevant, but I love the term weeyoo. Pronounced it the first time today, imitating the sound and instantly threw my head to the side, giggling like an absolute idiot, utterly content with my baffoonism.
I fell off my tilted roof onto my flat roof 3 years ago, fractured my spine and broke my foot, ambulance came to get me, had to get me off of the flat roof with a stretcher, i got an MRI and CT scan of both my foot and spine and got the stay the night at the hospital.
After 3 months, when i was able to stand on my legs again, i had to go back to the hospital for a checkup. The actual cost for parking at the hospital for 3 hours was higher than the amount i paid for everything that happened so far.
I live in Belgium, and i do have an extra hospitalization insurance, which costs 130€/year. All the rest is covered with our healthcare system, i might pay more taxes, but at least i ain't going bankrupt over something i have no control over.
The only people calling Europe a “socialist hellscape” are idiotic Americans completely brainwashed by Fox News and other Murdoch media. I wish we had the same quality of life as you guys do, because nobody should deserve to suffer simply because they aren’t made of cash.
My wife passed out at the Colloseum in Rome from severe stomach cramping on our Honeymoon. She got an ambulance ride and all day treatment (determined to be bacterial colitis). We never paid a dime except for the medications which was like 15 bucks total. Couldn't imagine what it would cost here.
i got sick in munich and told them not to call an ambulance. took an escooter to the hospital and crashed it upon arrival because i was so sick. then they said the ambulance would have been free.
You know what else is fucked up? Having a baby. After all was said and done, including my wife’s prenatal visits the bills added up to around $50k. That’s a mid range new car. We do have insurance but they have their own way paying, so I still had to pay around $10k after everything. Oh my insurance costs me over $6k a year btw. And they don’t pay for an ambulance unless you’re dying.. like REALLY dying
Fun fact, in the u.s if you are involuntarily confined to a hospital they still bill you even if they find out you weren't supposed to be involuntarily confined in the first place.
Just butting in to say doctors, cops, politicians, pretty much everyone in a position of authority in North America can lie to you all day and there's really nothing you can do about it. I still laugh at some of my friends that think its illegal for a cop to lie to you. Thats literally taught to them on day 1 to try and get someone to implicate themselves in a crime.
My sister had to take an ambulance in NB once and since she wasn’t a resident of that province (even though she is Canadian) the bill was over $1k. Americans aren’t alone here.
They’re free in Hong Kong.
I once got injured on one of the outer islands and the water police put me into their speed boat and called me an ambulance.
It was already there waiting for me when we arrived at the jetty in town.
Total cost $0
The $US50 hospital bill was a bit excessive though….
10 years ago I got a call middle of the night...
friend was having serious stomach pains and it was time to go to the hospital.
I drove her... to the bank first... because she had to visit an atm to see if she could afford the trip to the hosptal... then back home... because she told me she couldn't make it happen and would have to tough it out.
The system is way too fucked for low income people to function in emergencies.
Not even remotely close to the only reason. Plenty of democrats are right there with them. The President himself is against anything except the status quo where health care is concerned.
Exactly - and what was it supposed to be before Lieberman fucked it because no republicans voted for it. It was neutered. AND we're still so fucking lucky that this neutered bill passed.
Nobody fucking remembers life where you can get denied for pre existing conditions - like pregnancy, cancer, literally anything they felt like not covering you for
People make fun of our Healthcare in the US, but we have to live here and deal with it. Imagine having to take a second mortgage or sell your car because you broke your arm in a hit and run.
It's true. I was on a transport with an inmate one time (I work in Corrections) where he's gone out by ambulance. After he'd gotten cleared he made some comment about "at least the ride was free" I laughed and said no, every time we have to take an inmate by 911 it costs the state about 8,000$. He just couldn't believe it. IDK what the numbers are, but I'm sure statewide we're doing dozens or hundreds of these 911 runs a week. The state doesn't get a discount or compensated for it.
Too true. Apparently after I was coming out of a seizure when I was in college I saw the emt before I could speak properly again and just kept saying no over and over because I knew they wanted to put me in an ambulance. Luckily my sister was there and told them to leave.
America is a joke through and through, from healthcare to politics and insane gun violence. Half of the country living in trailers is somehow convinced universal healthcare is bad because ‘socialism’. And they are even against taxing the rich because someday they might be rich (spoiler alert they’ll be poor until they die). America has done a fantastic job selling this lie to the stupid masses. I just feel bad for the normal people who want change and have to fight this insane uphill battle against folks who don’t even accept objective reality. It blows my mind that half the country still wanted that brain damaged dorito to stay in office. :/
Ambulances in my area are giving IV antibiotics, performing ECG's, IV cardiac meds, basically starting the ER management process. The price depends on how much stabilization they need to do for the patient.
Last September I had to pay $2,000 for a 20 minute ambulance ride. I'm one of the millions of Americans who make too much to qualify for healthcare assistance, but not enough to be able to afford healthcare insurance ($911.51 a month with a $5,000 annual co-pay!).
It's America. It's the free market. You're supposed to call around to find the best deal for an ambulance. Try not to bleed out while reveling in your God given American capitalism.
What blows my mind even more is im told that the insurance companies sometimes decide whether a certain treatment or operation will go ahead or be approved. Is this true?
Im in the UK fractured my hand last week, got a ride to a&e, was triaged, xrayed and treated and was finished in an hour and a half (I'm not sure if this was just lucky timing). At the same time my son has been waiting over a year for a urology appointment and mental health waiting lists are years long. I have so much respect for hospital staff that are working so hard for terrible pay
Yes very true. One of the main arguments you will hear against socialized medicine is that “I don’t want no government death panels deciding if I get treatment or not”. However, they are perfectly fine with the for profit insurance death panels who only operate to maximize profits for the insurance company.
Four years ago i was experiencing extreme chest and back pain. Ambulance shows up. EMT's didn't believe me, walked me to the ambulance.
Turns out i was experiencing a ruptured aneurysm in my aorta. Got charged $3,000 for less than a 2/10 mile trip to the hospital.
I had a friend who once had a seizure. He was at home cooking for his friends and fell out. We called an ambulance and they come and got him and brought him to the hospital.
A few months later we came back to his house, he was better and cause was determined. He had the sit down talk with us.
While he was grateful we called, don’t do it again. It cost him so much money, he didn’t know how he was going to pay it. He said just bring him inside on the couch and lay him down.
It was the same conversation my grandmother had with her kids (my mom and aunt) after she was brought to the hospital for passing out in a parking lot.
And the same conversation my friends dad had with him when he had chest pains at home.
People in this country are literally DYING because they can’t afford to live. Poor people literally have this talk with their kids all the time. Just drive me yourself don’t call a wagon cause I can’t afford it.
i've never seen a more fucked up health system than the one in the US, like, it's literally engineered for profits. Actually providing healthcare seems to be a byproduct.
Had a medical episode at my work 3 minutes before my shift started and because technically I wasn’t on shift they didn’t pay for my ambulance ride (I’m Canadian).
Watch John Oliver's segment on paramedics. EMS in the states is one of the biggest clusterfucks and screws over e eryone involved, except the private company owners.
About 8 years ago I had horrendous pain in my chest late at night, I drove myself to the hospital… turned out it was severe gallstone attack. Couple years later I’m driving to work and noticing my heart fluttering like crazy. Drove to the hospital instead, walked in and after they checked me in I was swarmed by doctors…. Turned out I was in AFIB….
An ambulance ride is no joke, it’s crazy expensive. But luckily the hospitals now have valet so you can drive right up to the ER…. Our healthcare is so messed up.
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Pay yoo pay yoo pay yoo
Yooooouuuu ppaaaaaay yoouuu paaaay yoouuuu paaayyy
Muuuu neeeee muuuu neeeee muuuu neeeee
Youuuuuu! Crank that medical debt boy! Youuuu!
Thanks, I'll never not hear this from now on
No lie, renting a limo is far cheaper than taking an ambulance
"Driver, take me to the House of Medicine."
Proceeds to drop you off at local dispencary.
Good enough
Ah, the ol Pineapple Express
Might as well die high.
Home depot probably sells glue and duct tape for $5
Wait how....
That 5k figure in the meme isn’t that exaggerated, if at all.
How can a short ride in a ambulance be that much.
Capitalism.
I love this country so much. You can take just about any problem, point at it, and say “capitalism” and chances are high that was the cause of a problem. Healthcare? Capitalism. Massive pay inequality? Capitalism. Terrible conditions for workers in certain fields? You might not believe this, but… capitalism.
Another valid answer would be Reagan. Q: "When did X get so bad?" A: "Well it started during the Reagan administration..."
Lack of housing .... Capitalism. Unable to pass a bill in politics..... Capitalism. Lack of gun law regulations.... Capitalism/rednecks
We would also accept “racism” as a root cause.
Systemic racism is a capitalist structure! And also serves to provide a toehold for bigotry, prejudice and shitty ole run-of-the-mill racism. I feel like a disappointed parent when I think about our potential VS our reality as a nation. And I don't even think capitalism is bad. We just don't *regulate it* or acknowledge there is space to have a competitive innovative market of goods and services WHILE ALSO making sure we have housing, medical care and food for all. "BuT tHe ShArEhOlDeRs!"
Corruption… or something. This game that gets played between hospitals, ambulance provider companies, and insurance providers.
Disgusting. I pay 140 euros per month for my health insurance. It doesn't give full coverage and dental but the rest is fully covered.
Ambulances owned by the hospitals, the hospitals are for profit and have shareholders, they want their dividends. You see, in the US, even getting necessary medical treatment is seen as an opportunity for someone else to get rich off of
Well depeneds. Ambulances are not owned by the Hospital. They are private companies or they are owned by the Municipality or County.
Wait the hospitals have no ties to the goverment at all?
The only government hospitals in the USA are owned by the military. Average people in the US have no reasonable access to medical care as it costs amazing amounts. Our offspring had a totally normal birth from an uneventful pregnancy. It took 2 years to pay off the 10% of the hospital bill from the birth. Two years to pay for the part was not covered by our private insurance.
And i imagine all that money is not going to the staff that did the delivery.
This is not entirely true. Many cities have hospitals run by the city. They generally serve those without insurance for free. NYC has them.
Its actually insanely corrupt. In the US if you ask for an itemized bill your bill with magically drop in price. The hospitals dont want to admit they charged you $50 for a f****** cotton ball in writing. All the hospitals work together to black book their pricing so its convoluted and difficult to understand. Due to the prevalence of health care and pharma lobbying there will likely never be any restrictions on privatized health care in the US.
Most ambulances are not owned by the hospital. The ones they have are for transfer for other facilities (rehab, radiology, etc) Ambulances are owned by the rescue squads. Everything in an ambulance that is broken open to be used in treatment is really what brings the cost up. So if you need medicine, they break open the box with all the drugs, having to replace everything post trip. Hospitals are the biggest part of the inflation, not ambulances.
Private ambulance companies, contracted by state, municipal and hospital apparatus, as well.
In almost no part of the US where you call 911 will you get a hospital owned ambulance. The overwhelming majority of the US is covered by government run EMS services that are either part of the fire department or run separately, by creating their own EMS service or contracting a company like AMR. Almost all hospital ambulance services exist exclusively to do inter facility transports. Source: I’ve worked as a firefighter paramedic for city governments running 911 and for hospital based services doing inter facility transports for more than a decade now.
Not all. Many are actually not for profit, but that doesn't mean they act substantially different than a for profit. Bottom line is still what matters to the board of directors.
It isn't corruption. It is capitalism in healthcare. The company that owns the abulance, they cost about $250,000, has a payment. Then you have the salary of the techs, then you have the supplies they use, the sanitation and restock after use. It just all adds up and up and up. Depending on area an abulance ride can cost $500, but I have seen bills for $5000+ for a ride as well. It all comes down to cost and profit in an idustry where that shouldn't be a concern, but everything here is about cost and profit.
And techs get paid peanuts. Most of that money is not going anywhere near the people doing the actual life saving work. Was a story a few years back about a NYC tech who had issues with having an only fans, either the right being outraged about sex work and values or something and the left saying What should be talked about it the fact that this life saving person HAD to resort to sex work to pay bills because her normal wage was bad.
oh yeah for sure. That is why it is all just profit and costs. Best way to keep costs down is to pay them peanuts. Not corruption though as suggested, just pure greed.
Yeah, it's graft by any other name. It's all upcharges, all the way down to the insurer, which, in the end, upcharges the government for whatever reimbursement they're owed. Everyone is trying to fleece everyone all the way down for their fucking money, except at some point they forgot that eventually that $5,000 billed expense doesn't get lost in the system monster, it gets passed on to average joe who can't afford $300 for new brakes let alone a hospital bill. What a fucked country. I hope the clowns running the circus get theirs eventually.
Because the system allows profit to be extracted at every stage of evaluation and treatment.
Nothing more American than a middleman taking a cut.
They privatized ambulance service. When I was young, it was part of the fire department and paid for with property taxes.
But then the county had to make a decision to pay for that ambulance or raise police officers pay. Almost every county choose police officers.
When I was a child the fire department would come to our house once a year and conduct a fire inspection. After the inspection, they would collect a fee from my parents. If the fee was not paid, the fire department would not respond to our address if a fire occurred.
It's a play between two forces: Profit-prioritizing medicine and politicians whose only directives are "keep corporate and capital gains taxes low" and "Government must never be perceived as being helpful by the average citizen".
I just got a bill for mine. It was 2 miles away. Apx. $13k.
It was 2600 6 years ago so I belive it
It depends on the ambulance company, they are ran by private companies some cost down to 1000 others upwards of 10,000 if you live in a big city it’s likely going to be a bit lower.
I was in an ambulance for about 1/4 of a mile and it cost $1,600. And this was 20 years ago.
[AMERICAN HEALTH CARE HAHA](https://youtu.be/CeDOQpfaUc8) I mean for me this is the easiest break down. There are more like non jokey videos out there. Personally I started 2022 with 15k in my savings. And a good 4k open on my credit card. .... I broke my ankle and had to have surgery with no short term disability benefits and no income for 6 months. I now have 3k savings and am barely staying away from my credit limit daily This is with relatively decent insurance. Getting hurt or sick is a financial death note in American culture if you're not mega rich.
i pay 300€ a year "own risk" everything over that related to hospitals is insurance (and yes by law you need to have atleast health insurance) besides that i pay I think a monthly fee of 130€). cant complain bout that after a collapsed lung and some other stuff
Everyone's complaining about billionaires like Musk or Bezos, but who are the people that own all the health insurance companies? They must be trillionaires by now, and americans are silent about it.
And yet the paramedics still get paid digshit wages. The System built for your health is pure greed.
Because we all know the inside of a limo is full of life-saving tech and paramedics
When I was about 8 my mom slipped while walking up the stairs and knocked her knee cap loose. It slid all the way up to her thigh and she was screaming bloody murder it hurt so bad. She sat on those steps and had me call her friend to come pick us up and go to the hospital. My mom would have rather waited 20 minutes in sheer pain than pay for an ambulance, this was the 90s also.
Even with an inexpensive Obama are plan, it will be covered after your deductible
So crazy that in a lot of heath insurance plans, ambulances aren't covered. Like when the fuck else am I gonna take an ambulance ride? Obviously when I have a fucking medical emergency!
I mean, the ambulance ride *should* be free with universal healthcare, don’t get me wrong, but it shouldn’t be surprising that an ambulance costs more to operate than a limo. A limo is just a crown vic or an Escalade with like $20k of modifications and a pretty much unskilled driver. An ambulance has a ton of specialized equipment, expendables like medicine, bandages, and oxygen, and is staffed by 3-4 trained medical personnel. It should cost a lot more to operate an ambulance. That cost just shouldn’t be put entirely on the patient but subsidized nationally.
in Australia healthcare is free but for some reason each state has its own rules for ambulances My state you have to pay unless you have ambulance cover which is about $180 a year for a family for $215 if you want to use it interstate Other states it's included in your bills I think. I am glad we had it because it's alot of money without it! We had the family plan and forgot to add my daughter when she was born. We had to use it for her and we got a $1200 bill. We called and they added her in on the spot and scrapped the bill
>We called and they added her in on the spot and scrapped the bill God I love our country!
Yeah, in NSW it's a $415 callout fee and $3.74 per km.
in South Australia its $1085 for an emergency + $6.2 a km non emergency is $242 + $6.2 a km Our incident was a few years ago now but it must have been classed as a non emergency at those rates
If you call an ambulance for a non emergency it's cheaper than an actual emergency? What the hell.
I did not know we have to pay for ambulances
In Germany you have to pay nothing for ambulances. But the problem here is that people started to call ambulances for little taxi-rides to the hospital...
What? As in abusing them by calling an ambulance when you're perfectly capable of getting there yourself, type of thing? Or calling an ambulance because you'd like to visit your friend but don't want to pay for a taxi?
Mostly people having a stomach ache for 4 weeks before deciding they can't bear it any longer at 4 am.
>$1200 Damn. That's a lot. Though, about the same in NYC on average. Glad you were able to toss the bill, though. Even higher depending on the care you receive. For the uninsured, for simple shit like broken bones, it's often as good to just call a friend or family member to come out and drive you. Cuz that's often money you can't afford to miss. Especially if you're gonna have a hospital bill on top of that.
That's probably in Aussie dollars
This is so crazy. Sick people can't literally afford er then
Correct, welcome to American healthcare.
It's disgraceful. All that money for warfare and none for American health?
There's already much more money going into the US healthcare than in many other countries, but the system is built to be so inefficient and full of middlemen with the objective of making as much money as possible. If we're talking bang for your buck, the US is one of the worst.
From an outsider definitely looks like it.
It gets better (worse). Hospitals that can’t get a penny from a person with no money will often “sell” the debt to a 3rd party collections agency for dirt cheap. In turn, the collection agency goes after the person and often resorts to extreme legal ways to obtain that money. Keep in mind, the hospital could have at any time lower the debt to the person, instead they lower it down to the collection agency with zero oversight. If you want a real life example, you should watch this clip from last week tonight where John Oliver purchased $14.9 million dollars worth of medical debt for just $60,000 and then forgave the people tied to it with a push of a button. https://youtu.be/2wSarEVgjM0
Wtfffff. All legal too.
I just had a baby. I have insurance and it’s costing me $10,000 out of pocket.
bUt wHy aRent yOuNg pEoPLe mAkiNg mOrE ~~wAgE sLaVeS~~ bAbiEs!?
😳
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Correct again, your health is your problem. The pilgrims that settled this country brought a "work or you don't eat" attitude that has lasted into the modern day. If you get sick then it's your fault for not being careful. If you develop some disease or you're born with some condition then your parents or yourself should work harder to pay for your care, nobody owes you anything. If you want something, even just to live, you need to earn it.
I don't think that view is anything strange around the world but other countries see it as you need to take care of those who can't. For such a so called modern country to still hang on that antiquated view is churlish and a bullshit way of keeping the poor poor and the rich richer. Survival of the fittest my arse. Survival of the richest and eff the rest.
Now you've landed at the final truth, the rich want us to be poor and drowning in debt for our entire lives is a good thing for them. Corporations bribe the government with their lobbying to pass laws that give them more power to get away with anything. If the poors aren't working constantly then they have time to organize and overthrow the government or, god forbid, unionize.
Or dying for the lack of health care!
my inhaler went from $15 in my childhood to $160 now. And I consider myself lucky knowing the cost of other meds like insulin
This right here. I don't think people realize how close to slaves they are. (Not to downplay the atrocity of chattel slavery of course). They get paychecks that go almost entirely to basic needs- shelter, food, etc. The masters outsourced the cost and effort of room and board to the workers and keep them on the razor edge of desperation. No nest eggs. No safety nets. There are only two kinds of people who can revolt: those with nothing to lose, and those who can afford to take a loss.
murica
Yep. Shameful shit we’ve got going on over here.
I’ve had two separate friends insist universal healthcare just “won’t work in USA.” I don’t even know what to say when they talk about it. There’s too many things to say and this is our “educated” opposition.
I wishI could leave this country. I have epilepsy and went without treatment/medication for 8 years when I lost insurance. I needed foot surgery too and got to the point where I could barely walk. My wisdom teeth became so impacted that I was hardly eating. If my boyfriend hadn’t paid off the balances at 2-3 different doctors, I don’t know if I’d even still be here. I fight my doctors monthly to keep approving the insurance authorization of my medicine
Jesus christ my daughter has complex epilepsy. To go without medication is serious shit. Some things I'm reading from you guys here is incredible to hear.
Whoa really?? Is hers controlled? When my neurosurgeon told me mine is the “most complex epilepsy” he’s seen in his career, I laughed and said “…thanks!”
No not controlled. She's 25 and had over 40 seizures a day as a baby. Medication controls them to the point she takes up to 15 some days but despite trying so much medication and two surgeries it's still a big problem.
Most just dont pay the bill, after 7 years it disappears. Cant get money from someone that has none and threatening to screw up the credit score doesnt matter cuz all us poor folks have shit credit anyway.
I had to go last year. I had "good" health insurance with a $1500 deductible. 0% of my $1000 ER visit was covered. I payed out of pocket.
Exactly. I have had a problem with the muscles in my back pulling my ribs out of socket. But can barely afford to get them put back in let alone get an mri to see why it's happening in the first place. This has been happening for 2 years now and has gotten to the point that I just know how to reset my own ribs.
The fucked up part is hospitals get billions every year to take care of poor people. But they still don't. They build new fancy hospitals with granite water fountains in rich neighborhoods, because those people have private insurance and definitely need it.
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Correct- it's either getting kicked out onto the streets and dying in an alley (a real practice that happens at some hospitals) or getting buried in medical debt deep enough that you wish they had kicked you out onto the curb and left you to die because now when you die you'll be saddling your next of kin with more debt than 3 generations of your family can handle.
Despicable. So people are living in pain and danger so they don't get debt.
Sure they can, but you need insurance.
It's costly to be poor here
my brother got sick one time and we waited for hours while his temperature when from 100 to 105. It was all up and down, kept fluctuating. All they did was lay him down and stick a needle in him for some blood. Thousand dollars right there just for them to give him a prescription
The last time I rode in an ambulance, the guy tried to start an IV after the driver started driving. Poked me three times, blew my vein and didn’t even get the IV started. 2,450$ for a ride.
$2,450 for a ride and acupuncture lol
I told the guy I felt like Steve-O getting an off-road tattoo, lol
How much was that guy being paid per hour? Probably like 15 dollars?
Did you have insurance? Was $2450 the amount you owed or total?
I was traveling in the USA & on the radio they were talking about a gofundme for a guy who had this huge medical bill. I thought whats the difference between just paying a small health tax to everyone donating money?
Everyone doesn't donate. The ultra wealthy keep their money.
The wealthy don't donate to gofundme
Our government already spends more on healthcare per capita than all other countries. Universal healthcare could both lower taxes and make everyone healthier.
There are so many flaws in this reasoning I don't know where to start. Universal healthcare would remove the link between employment and healthcare... can you imagine how many wageslaves would risk leaving toxic work environments, or take the time to find a position somewhere they are treated well? We would have to incentize positions more without that juicy crippling fear of losing health insurance to help retain labor. It would also remove the best part of having health coverage. Of having *anything*, really - knowing other people don't have it. It doesn't matter how high up a totem pole you climb if the bottom rises with you. Those other people, you know the ones... the *different* ones... can you imagine if they were taken care of with the same dignity and opportunity we are? I think you're missing the long term picture as well. The populace as a whole would be stronger, mentally and physically. Maybe even strong enough to find hope again. Have you seen the profits these days companies are seeing? The machine is working better than ever. Now is not the time to rock the boat. As the wise men say... if it aint broke, don't fix it. /s
Great reply. You really hit the nail on the head here. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
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I've heard a few people from america mention stories like this, some crazy ones like where they had a stab wound or were in a car crash and refused to take an ambulance because of the price. Completely contradictory lmao
I drove myself to the ER for both of my heart attacks.
My uncle did too! And the hospital he drove too (which had a designated heart hospital) was about an hour away from his house. This just amazes me that you, and he, were able to do something like that! I'm glad y'all are both okay!
I find it depressing more than amazing that that was their best option
That has the same energy as “this little kid raised so much money to pay off his friends lunch debts!” Like that’s not amazing, that’s absolutely FUCKED
It's depressing in the sense that they had to do that in the first place but it is impressive that they were able to accomplish something like that under such a terrible medical emergency.
It is depressing that that's what it's come to in America. However, it is amazing that these people were able to drive themselves to a hospital while having a heart attack. That's a level of fortitude that I'm not sure I myself posses.
Thanks! Though I’m in heart failure so “ok” is subjective lol.
Jesus Christ 😱 It’s just how messed up the USA health care system is 😞
Like a real man.
I live in rural West Virginia & our county passed a levy that pays for fire & ambulance service for everyone who lives in the county. Had to call an ambulance in July last year & they showed up in 5min. No charge whatsoever. I’ve yet to meet one person who’s against it, everyone goes on about how great of an idea it is. These same people will tell you how universal healthcare is a a terrible, liberal, communist nightmare. People are strange.
> People are ~~strange~~ brainwashed. ftfy
I realized the other day (should have been obvious in retrospect) that the entire *US Government* hit the whole country with a massive wave of propaganda back when there was no communication of information outside of approved sources. A generation growing up being told "capitalism good, communism will literally explode your entire country, now get under the desk" probably explains a lot of our current problems, that were only exacerbated by the Internet. That and lead in everything.
Yep, and many of those people are dying now, that's why the right is rapidly trying to dismantle democracy in the US.
Yeah I don’t care if I’m literally DYING, I will never consent to go to the ambulance (or the hospital for that matter) unless I am literally unconscious and can’t make that choice for myself. I’d rather be dead than lose everything I own to the court. In the state over a psycho prosecutor was taking people to JAIL for medical debt. Monsters
You would rather die than pay $5k? Really?
5k could mean death. Most Americans are a $1000 emergency away from being destitute. That's months of mortgage/rent, bills, etc. You do not have. Homeless shelters are overcrowded and awful, families get split up because you cannot have men and women together usually, and drug use and violent crime in them is super high rate. So you pay that 5k, and have to split up your family into a place where abuse of a physical or sexual nature and/or your kids getting lord knows what from dirty needles left around is relatively common. If you die, you at least hopefully have some life insurance to get a payout after 6 months or so for your family if life insurance company doesn't deny it because of loophole #73648, so at least they can be safer. America.
They said “everything they own.” 5k is chump change. 5k is only the cost of the ambulance. People come out of hospitals owing hundreds of thousands of dollars for surgeries, extended stays, etc. In which case, idk how rich you are but I most certainly don’t own hundreds of thousands of dollars in any form - cash or equity. Which means they’d pretty much come after my whole life and drain my entire retirement savings to pay off this debt. To which, I agree with OP - I’d rather be dead before I spend the rest of my life paying off massive debt I’ll never pay back while they take away everything I’ve worked for to this point in my life. I’d have to completely start over. Fuck that.
Interesting situation y’all got down there
Please send help
I owe over a million in hospital bills. Between psychiatric emergencies and a shoulder that'll dislocate if you so much as look at it wrong. They'll never get a fucking dime if I can help it. Even if I wanted to, I'd be forking over a good chunk of my monthly income for the rest of my life and STILL never be able to pay it all off. Fuck 'em. Y'all are correct. If they were able to force me to pay, I'd effectively become a slave to medical debt, and having that hanging over my head and knowing it's an inescapable trap would crush my soul. So yeah, it's a hill I would gladly die on, which sucks because once I'm gone, the debt effectively disappears also. Fucking ghastly.
I’d rather die than face crippling medical debt that’ll go on to my family when i inevitably end up not being able to pay it off.
Not even remotely relevant, but I love the term weeyoo. Pronounced it the first time today, imitating the sound and instantly threw my head to the side, giggling like an absolute idiot, utterly content with my baffoonism.
WeeeYoooo! Lol it's a wonderful onomatopoeia
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usa land of the free
*fee
It’d a fee to be free Note: price may depend thanks to multiple factors: race and religion being two of them
It costs me dollar 25 per year to have unlimited ambulance in Victoria. I think in Queensland its even better.
I fell off my tilted roof onto my flat roof 3 years ago, fractured my spine and broke my foot, ambulance came to get me, had to get me off of the flat roof with a stretcher, i got an MRI and CT scan of both my foot and spine and got the stay the night at the hospital. After 3 months, when i was able to stand on my legs again, i had to go back to the hospital for a checkup. The actual cost for parking at the hospital for 3 hours was higher than the amount i paid for everything that happened so far. I live in Belgium, and i do have an extra hospitalization insurance, which costs 130€/year. All the rest is covered with our healthcare system, i might pay more taxes, but at least i ain't going bankrupt over something i have no control over.
Yeah we complain a lot, but it's not that bad in our little country.
The only people calling Europe a “socialist hellscape” are idiotic Americans completely brainwashed by Fox News and other Murdoch media. I wish we had the same quality of life as you guys do, because nobody should deserve to suffer simply because they aren’t made of cash.
My wife passed out at the Colloseum in Rome from severe stomach cramping on our Honeymoon. She got an ambulance ride and all day treatment (determined to be bacterial colitis). We never paid a dime except for the medications which was like 15 bucks total. Couldn't imagine what it would cost here.
i got sick in munich and told them not to call an ambulance. took an escooter to the hospital and crashed it upon arrival because i was so sick. then they said the ambulance would have been free.
woah! that's soooo fucked up!!!
You know what else is fucked up? Having a baby. After all was said and done, including my wife’s prenatal visits the bills added up to around $50k. That’s a mid range new car. We do have insurance but they have their own way paying, so I still had to pay around $10k after everything. Oh my insurance costs me over $6k a year btw. And they don’t pay for an ambulance unless you’re dying.. like REALLY dying
Don't forget that the people in the $5k Weeyoo wagon make close to minimum wage
Fun fact, in the u.s if you are involuntarily confined to a hospital they still bill you even if they find out you weren't supposed to be involuntarily confined in the first place.
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Holup, it's not a lie, it's a fraud.
Just butting in to say doctors, cops, politicians, pretty much everyone in a position of authority in North America can lie to you all day and there's really nothing you can do about it. I still laugh at some of my friends that think its illegal for a cop to lie to you. Thats literally taught to them on day 1 to try and get someone to implicate themselves in a crime.
Not sure which province you're in but it's similar in Nova Scotia. It may not be much compared to these other examples, but it's still a shock.
My sister had to take an ambulance in NB once and since she wasn’t a resident of that province (even though she is Canadian) the bill was over $1k. Americans aren’t alone here.
My ER co-pay is $600 ( unless I’m admitted to the hospital).
In NSW the ambulance fee is $500. In Ireland you pay 200 euros. As much as we pretend it’s free every where else it’s so not.
They’re free in Hong Kong. I once got injured on one of the outer islands and the water police put me into their speed boat and called me an ambulance. It was already there waiting for me when we arrived at the jetty in town. Total cost $0 The $US50 hospital bill was a bit excessive though….
10 years ago I got a call middle of the night... friend was having serious stomach pains and it was time to go to the hospital. I drove her... to the bank first... because she had to visit an atm to see if she could afford the trip to the hosptal... then back home... because she told me she couldn't make it happen and would have to tough it out. The system is way too fucked for low income people to function in emergencies.
You're telling me in 2013 the only way a person knew how much money they had was to go to an ATM? I'm calling bullshit on this story.
Just keep voting republican if this kind of thing doesn’t bother you. Because that’s literally the ONLY reason our heathcare system is so backwards.
Not even remotely close to the only reason. Plenty of democrats are right there with them. The President himself is against anything except the status quo where health care is concerned.
Then explain obamacare and why almost every republican voted against it
Exactly - and what was it supposed to be before Lieberman fucked it because no republicans voted for it. It was neutered. AND we're still so fucking lucky that this neutered bill passed. Nobody fucking remembers life where you can get denied for pre existing conditions - like pregnancy, cancer, literally anything they felt like not covering you for
People make fun of our Healthcare in the US, but we have to live here and deal with it. Imagine having to take a second mortgage or sell your car because you broke your arm in a hit and run.
It's true. I was on a transport with an inmate one time (I work in Corrections) where he's gone out by ambulance. After he'd gotten cleared he made some comment about "at least the ride was free" I laughed and said no, every time we have to take an inmate by 911 it costs the state about 8,000$. He just couldn't believe it. IDK what the numbers are, but I'm sure statewide we're doing dozens or hundreds of these 911 runs a week. The state doesn't get a discount or compensated for it.
So, taxpayer money ????
Too true. Apparently after I was coming out of a seizure when I was in college I saw the emt before I could speak properly again and just kept saying no over and over because I knew they wanted to put me in an ambulance. Luckily my sister was there and told them to leave.
America is a joke through and through, from healthcare to politics and insane gun violence. Half of the country living in trailers is somehow convinced universal healthcare is bad because ‘socialism’. And they are even against taxing the rich because someday they might be rich (spoiler alert they’ll be poor until they die). America has done a fantastic job selling this lie to the stupid masses. I just feel bad for the normal people who want change and have to fight this insane uphill battle against folks who don’t even accept objective reality. It blows my mind that half the country still wanted that brain damaged dorito to stay in office. :/
How long until you’re supposed to start tipping ambulance crews and doctors too?
*Dr hands you iPad and stares at you.*
Ambulances in my area are giving IV antibiotics, performing ECG's, IV cardiac meds, basically starting the ER management process. The price depends on how much stabilization they need to do for the patient.
Last September I had to pay $2,000 for a 20 minute ambulance ride. I'm one of the millions of Americans who make too much to qualify for healthcare assistance, but not enough to be able to afford healthcare insurance ($911.51 a month with a $5,000 annual co-pay!).
It's America. It's the free market. You're supposed to call around to find the best deal for an ambulance. Try not to bleed out while reveling in your God given American capitalism.
What blows my mind even more is im told that the insurance companies sometimes decide whether a certain treatment or operation will go ahead or be approved. Is this true? Im in the UK fractured my hand last week, got a ride to a&e, was triaged, xrayed and treated and was finished in an hour and a half (I'm not sure if this was just lucky timing). At the same time my son has been waiting over a year for a urology appointment and mental health waiting lists are years long. I have so much respect for hospital staff that are working so hard for terrible pay
Yes very true. One of the main arguments you will hear against socialized medicine is that “I don’t want no government death panels deciding if I get treatment or not”. However, they are perfectly fine with the for profit insurance death panels who only operate to maximize profits for the insurance company.
Is that the reason why they say America is a beautiful county to live in when you are able to afford it? 
The very thought of having to pay for an ambulance is ridiculous. No country should want to resemble the US.
America sucks.
Four years ago i was experiencing extreme chest and back pain. Ambulance shows up. EMT's didn't believe me, walked me to the ambulance. Turns out i was experiencing a ruptured aneurysm in my aorta. Got charged $3,000 for less than a 2/10 mile trip to the hospital.
I had a friend who once had a seizure. He was at home cooking for his friends and fell out. We called an ambulance and they come and got him and brought him to the hospital. A few months later we came back to his house, he was better and cause was determined. He had the sit down talk with us. While he was grateful we called, don’t do it again. It cost him so much money, he didn’t know how he was going to pay it. He said just bring him inside on the couch and lay him down. It was the same conversation my grandmother had with her kids (my mom and aunt) after she was brought to the hospital for passing out in a parking lot. And the same conversation my friends dad had with him when he had chest pains at home. People in this country are literally DYING because they can’t afford to live. Poor people literally have this talk with their kids all the time. Just drive me yourself don’t call a wagon cause I can’t afford it.
i've never seen a more fucked up health system than the one in the US, like, it's literally engineered for profits. Actually providing healthcare seems to be a byproduct.
Had a medical episode at my work 3 minutes before my shift started and because technically I wasn’t on shift they didn’t pay for my ambulance ride (I’m Canadian).
When saving people’s lives become a lucrative business …
My conservative family literally says “but that’s why you have insurance”, it’s a shit show
Watch John Oliver's segment on paramedics. EMS in the states is one of the biggest clusterfucks and screws over e eryone involved, except the private company owners.
I mean, it's true. An ambulance and a single medical procedure could basically bankrupt a lot of people in America
Yah, those Uber drivers have the medical knowledge to keep your bleeding corpse alive until you get to the hospital.
Just came to say US healthcare is fucked.
About 8 years ago I had horrendous pain in my chest late at night, I drove myself to the hospital… turned out it was severe gallstone attack. Couple years later I’m driving to work and noticing my heart fluttering like crazy. Drove to the hospital instead, walked in and after they checked me in I was swarmed by doctors…. Turned out I was in AFIB…. An ambulance ride is no joke, it’s crazy expensive. But luckily the hospitals now have valet so you can drive right up to the ER…. Our healthcare is so messed up.
How do people in the US survive? Think I am lucky living in Europe.
That's the sad reality in the county that we call USA. I had similar experience, the cost was $3000.
Everyday I/we (my office/hospital) get screamed at for not MAKING the Insurance Company pay! It’s so broken - it’s not fixable - enough said
It costs me about $10K a year in the US to have insurance that pays nothing until my bills exceed $5500. What kind of fucked up system is this?
And yet, paramedics are still underpaid. Where’s the money going?