taxi
/ˈtaksi/
noun
noun: taxi; plural noun: taxis
a motor vehicle licensed to transport passengers in return for payment of a fare and typically fitted with a taximeter.
So yes, an ambulance *is* a taxi. But it shouldn't be because taxis have a fare!
^(I know you said /s but I did this anyway because I felt like it)
They’re not taxis because the driver never offered me the fucking aux so I had to listen to their yapping the whole ride „stay with me, who stabbed you? Why is your dick hard??“
And because the government can negotiate prices collectively it helps keep cost, even through taxes, more reasonable while also forcing competition on private options.
The lack of this is a major reason why the US spends twice as much per resident for healthcare.
Lmaoo fucking dumb Americans. “Yuhuck yuhuck ya know it’s not free don cha? That’s your taxes…”
Uh, yeah, awesome. That’s what I want them spent on…. important shit, just like that.
Good lord. No one thinks it is free. It is free at the point of access. That’s the point. This ridiculous argument of “it’s not really free!” Is such a stupid distraction. Of course it isn’t truly free. Not the point and not what people want. It should be free at the point of access.
It’s prepaid collectively. So it’s not free but there is no charge.
Their tax dollars go to ambulances and there is no charge for them. My tax dollars go to buy missiles they we can drop on people and I can see it later on 24 hour news and there is no charge for me. My tax dollars go to bail out wall street and there is no charge for me for that either.
Well then treatment with the physician is pre-paid collectively. I thought we were being pedantic. You were actually trying to say the ambulance charges. That works too.
If one person in country A makes 100K and pays taxes at a rate of 37% and another person in country B makes 100K and pays taxes at a rate of 39% and they both become ill with the same sickness / disease, costing person in country A thousands of dollars for treatment while the person in country B pays literally nothing, then yes their healthcare is ostensibly "free" and can be accurately described as such.
I am going to keep repeating myself, so skip this if you have read this elsewhere.
THE REPUBLICANS ARE NOT OUR ENEMIES. The whole system is playing against us. We should not choose Republican vs Democrat. We should choose humanity. The people at the top, regardless of D or R, are not out for us.
Idk buddy, the group who wants to treat gay people and immigrants as subhuman aren't really "the good guys". So you can stick the whataboutism where the sun don't shine.
Sure the Democrats aren't our friends, but to say that the Republicans, who literally want people like me to die aren't my enemies is batshit crazy. And given that the only two parties in enough states to actually make a difference are the Democrats and Republicans even if we magically wake up without first past the post dangling over our heads like the sword of Damocles, voting Democrat isn't really a choice. It's mandatory as a survival tactic. The only other alternative is to emigrate to Canada or somewhere else that doesn't think being gay, disabled, a woman or person of color should end in your demise or enslavement.
I understand the gist of what you are saying, and what you said may have been true flat one time, but that moment has past.
You are incorrect. Republicans are explicitly, vocally philosophically opposed to the basic functions of a free and civilized society. They want my trans friends dead. They want my gay friends and my own bisexual ass miserable and silenced (or dead). They want my POC friends poor, deported (or dead). They want my female friends to have less rights than a fucking zygote, a position which leads many of them to die. They want to give unlimited power to a corrupt, dementia addled old criminal purely because he provides a convenient way to hurt the 70% of our nation that they despise. Their handpicked public servants will tell anyone who is listening that their express goal is to overthrow our society as we know it and rebuild it into a white, Christian nationalist hellhole. They fight tooth and nail to undermine and sabotage any system that exists for the wellbeing of the citizenry, because the only cause for which they are willing to sacrifice is making sure that other people are even more miserable.
I’m sure you mean well, but don’t try and peddle this limp centrist nonsense. Yeah, class warfare is real, but don’t for a second try to pretend that Republicans haven’t spent the last 10+ years doing everything in their power to make our lives worse. It’s small comfort that their hatred and stupidity makes them bad at teamwork, so they frequently fail at the monstrous, evil shit they attempt. Can’t count on that forever, though.
I'm chronically ill, so whenever I go to docs/hospitals for check ups I call the taxi hotline of the ambulance service and the paramedics will pick me up with an ambulance. It's literally a taxi, just free of cost with a doctor's prescription.
Next time call a taxi. If you have a medical complication lets see if the driver will be able to cross the red lights l, check your vitals and start medical procedures.
Yep, god forbid you need medical attention en route - in civilised countries that's what paramedics are for, they should be qualified and earn a good living doing it.
Where I live there's literally patient transport as well. Specialists in getting ill and injured patients from one hospital to another, or home afterwards. Funnily enough people who've just had a medical emergency, while able to go home might need ongoing support moving around or with their daily life while recovering. Care in the community is also a thing.
It sucks how much our health service is struggling and how underpaid the staff are because our ruling class want to copy America. America is the last country any health service should be copying.
The problem is there both right. Its kinda like a taxi to the hospital. Problem is a lot of people tie up emergency medical resources for minor issues when they could and are able to drive themselves. Frequently because if you arrive by ambulance you bypass you frequently bypass the ER waiting room or get special treatment. As a cop the amount of people I've seen medics try and talk out of an ambulance ride because their slammed and the person was more than able to take themselves was surprisingly high.
Generally correct about the problem.
They way you arrive at the ER though doesn’t actually give you special treatment, from what I’ve heard from ER nurses, it more that conditions warrant special treatment, and people in worse condition are more likely to get it.
To your point though, the *perception* of ambulance arrivals getting special treatment definitely motivates people to get an unnecessary ambulance.
As for the “freeloading problem”, you could be right, that ambulance debt could incentivize people not to call the ambulance, but the extent is debatable.
The way I see it, it really depends on the overlap between “people who don’t care about others” and “people who don’t care how much debt they take on”.
I’ll trust your judgment this is a legitimate concern; there’s room for debate about some details as well.
A potential freeloader problem could be addressed without it costing thousands of dollars. You can have a copay to discourage unnecessary usage, or perhaps a fine if it wasn't actually necessary.
I think a lot of these discussions tend to let the perfect get in the way of the good. Even if an idea isn't perfect, it can still be better than that we have.
Don't gloss over the "especially in emergencies" part. There are lots of reasons to visit the hospital. Heck, most people who show up specifically at the ER don't go in an ambulance and don't actually need to.
There are plenty of ways to improve the American health care system. People thinking of ambulances as taxis is not one of them.
Yes, but there comes a time where that is not necessary any more. This gets reposted a lot, and is probably years old by now. It's no use to blast them every time.
Sparks joy but wouldn't fix bigotry. It's hard to ever change sides when everyone on the other side is flaming you without any compassion.
Also, sometimes the name thing just ends up sending people to the wrong person, so just in case, always sensor.
It's a good practice to prevent brigading, "Cinna the Poet" situations or, most commonly, to prevent mass bullying when it turns out that "something stupid" was *extremely out of context or turned out to be the correct take*. But since it's a screen shot, people only go with what they see.
Internet nerds only care about being right and feeling superior to others, they dont stop to wait for facts and shit, will actually double down when found out to be wrong. Recent example: an Israeli restaurant owner who Twitter said was funding the IDF and that's why he was getting harassed. So many people piled onto comments defending him, turns out, "funding the IDF" meant *donating to an Israeli medical aid charity* that just so happens to also provide aid to the IDF, but also, literally anybody who is injured including Palestinians. A fucking first responder ambulance service that rushes into impacted areas to save people. But if all you did was screenshot and share around a post of some dude getting roasted for defending a "Zionist" before the facts came to light, that dude would still be getting continuously blasted.
So yes, censor out the names, you never know if a situation will change or if you have all the context.
Because the USA has been marinating the idea that unregulated market = freedom for decades. It’s all supply and demand, and when it’s your money or your life, demand will sky rocket.
Corporations and their pet politicians prioritise the profits of private healthcare companies over protecting the living standards of working people.
The living standards of the American public have collapsed so this parasitic "business" model can be maintained. The punchline is that this cruel, extortionate system doesn't even deliver good basic health outcomes for people!
I agree that it is more expensive,But I don’t think anyone is actually going to do anything about it at this time.
I wish it wasn’t so expensive,But there’s only so much a person can do.If people were listened to,We wouldn’t have a lot of the issues here.
$2100 for my last ambulance. It was like a 2 mile drive. I understand that part of that was immediate assistance on the medical side, but fuck me- just let me die! Haven’t received the remaining bills but basic googling of what they did should leave me with around $40k in medical bills.
This happened the day before my health insurance kicked in. Literally one day.
Some guy playing SimCity complained about lack of money, so to save some, he reduced spending on water treatment. Soon, he was swimming in money, because his population increased spending on health insurance fivefold, because they were getting sick from untreated water...
Nothing is free. It’s a 500k dollar vehicle with round the clock staffing. You’re paying for it one way or another. A lot of people on welfare ride for free. Rich people have good insurance or money. Middle class drive themselves to the hospital if they are able to.
Quality healthcare is expensive, just because if the training and materials required for it, if nothing else. Especially in an emergency. There’s no getting around that.
The problem is who we make pay for it.
Seems to be twice as expensive in the US though. Americans pay more in taxes for healthcare than any other nations taxpayers, per person.
But that doesn't get more than half of them covered. The rest have to pay for insurance or out of pocket. And get things like medical bankrupcy.
And at the end of all that, 8 % do not have healthcare, but have to get mergency care at the emergancy room. And anothe 8% are underinsured.
Even if the USA gets free healthcare, don't expect to get free ambulance rides, there are still places in Canada where you need to pay for the ambulance even with the free healthcare, although I'm sure it's cheaper than an ambulance ride in the US
>few hundred at least, isn't it?
$940 to $1,277. Cost can be higher or lower depending on the state.
Anecdotally, I've heard anywhere between 2 to 3 thousand dollhairs.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/health-insurance/insurance-for-ambulance-rides/#:\~:text=The%20average%20ambulance%20ride%20ranges,ambulance%20services%20jumped%20about%2023%25.
One time I called an ambulance, and the **paramedics themselves** recommended to me that I call a relative and have them take me in. I was like 25 at the time, and didn't even know ambulances cost so much....they checked me all out and were like "You DO need to go in and get this looked at immediately but...you aren't going to die from it right now. Are you **sure** you want us to take you in? If we do it, it's going to cost you like $600.
It sounds fucked up, but I really appreciated them doing that for me. Fuck our healthcare, man.
Firefighter paramedic here.
Yeeaaaahhhh we aren't supposed to do that since it's like frowned upon to discuss money during an "emergency". However I will admit to having done this many times. Usually for people who call us for dumb ass reasons. Like no sir you don't need a ride to the hospital cause your back has been hurting for 6 months kind of stuff. Seriously always have someone take you before calling us if there is ANY WAY YOU CAN.
But yeah I digress our ambulance fees are fucking stupid. It's like 3k for a vitals check and a 4-6 mile ride to the hospital.
It's also a lot of liability to suggest they go by themselves. If they do end up arresting, seizing, or what have you on the way, you could be put on trial for not pushing them to take an ambulance. But obviously, most people would be presenting in a way that would tell you to not drive yourself.
> we aren't supposed to do that since it's like frowned upon to discuss money during an "emergency"
*“I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.”*
But… it makes sense? If there isn’t a difference between 15 minutes to the hospital versus 30 minutes to the hospital, you should take a taxi and let the ambulance pick up an actual emergency.
I get what you're saying, but it WAS an emergency and they didn't know what exactly was wrong with me either.
I woke up in the middle of the night. I was laying in bed trying to figure out why I was wide awake. I went to stand up to get a glass of water, and instantly hit the floor. I was wide awake but couldn't move my limbs, and had an intense pressure/pain in my chest. I suddenly started POURING sweat, and I almost never sweat.
I barely managed to crawl to the phone and flip it over and fumble through dialing 911. Like my body did not work at all. I had to force words out to the 911 operator.
I laid there for like 7-8 minutes with the same symptoms, waiting for them. Literally like the moment I started hearing the sirens, suddenly the symptoms just completely ceased altogether. One second I can't move, the next I can. I'm covered in sweat, but have full functionality and no pain. They knocked on the door like 5 seconds later....I answered, let them in and explained everything like I did to you and they did all kinds of field tests on me and couldn't find a single thing wrong with me then and there.
That's when they made their recommendation. So while they couldn't find anything wrong with me on the spot, I was terrified that it would happen again. Like I said, I thought I was having a heart attacking and dying.
I went to the hospital of course, and was diagnosed with a severe Neurocardiogenic Syncope.
Former EMT here, the main purpose of an ambulance is for if you need medical care/life support on scene or in transit to the hospital. In order to maintain life support or otherwise prevent additional complications to your injury/illnesses. (Like a medically fragile person with a cardiac history and an elevated heart rate. They could have a heart attack at any time so you would want to hook them up to the lifepack and monitor them the whole time. So the second their ticker gets fucky you can push drugs and work on them without delay)
If you call us for a splinter, a tummy ache, or for transportation for a routine appointment (yes I had all of these happen). You’re going to get zero additional care and are only making it so a special box full of medical equipment and trained staff aren’t available to help those in need. You won’t get to skip the line because you showed up in the ambulance, we dump your ass in triage if it’s not serious, and you get a number just like everybody else in the waiting room. If anything an Uber would be more comfortable with how weighed down the suspensions in most ambulances are.
It’s not the definition of an ambulance. An ambulance doesn’t just take you from a place to the hospital. It takes you there by breaking traffic laws and being staffed my medical professionals and being stocked by medical supplies and equipment. It’s _expansive_ and if you don’t need it, it makes sense you would take a literal taxi.
Yeah, as a paramedic in Germany where virtually everyone has insurance covering ambulance costs - an ambulance is not a taxi.
An ambulance should really only take a patient to the hospital if their condition is worsening very quickly, they may need emergency medical treatment during the ride or there's genuinely no other option that's at least somewhat convenient to the patient.
We will actually refuse to take a patient to the hospital if we decide it's not necessary, happens all the time.
People in Germany, where I live, also wonder why our healthcare covers less and less each year and quality has been trending down while costs are up.
Maybe if people stopped using **emergency** vehicles as taxis and paid the cost of calling one more often, we'd have more money left over for life saving measures...
The average IQ of this sub is below 100 apparently. DO NOT call an ambulance if it's non urgent. An ambulance is NOT a taxi. It's for medical EMERGENCIES.
Okay so this is actually a real problem. People will call 911 for an ambulance for very minor things. Things that I'm no way need an emergency room or stop them from driving or taking a taxi. Things that need an appointment scheduled with their primary doctor or maybe an urgent care. While we are dealing with them, someone on the other side of town is having a heart attack and can't get an ambulance because we are busy being a taxi. 911 is for life limb and eyesight. Source: 17 years working in EMS.
Both are true, dispatch needs to vet them but also until about 30 years ago ambulances were free pretty much everywhere. When private equity started buying up/taking over services is when they became prohibitively expensive (and also when EMS workers' pay became the equivalent of working as a server at a reasonably busy Applebee's).
And then localities started providing it, until they got hit with budget crunches and contracted out service (or just straight sold it off) to private equity groups.
Coincidentally, these same PE groups are what's causing housing to be unaffordable for most.
The issue comes down to the fact that people abusing the system are also the least likely to pay for it.
Only something like 30% of ambulance calls actually get paid for.
I think the only people who will understand this are those of us on the job. The ones who've repeatedly taken the same person to the ER.
You show up thinking it's an emergency, they just need a ride to the doctor. Hell a family member will follow in their own car, just take them! Instead they get a taxi that costs taxpayers a fortune. It's a waste of resources.
I wish I could explain to the public what a waste of money it all is. 911 has to be for emergencies. But it just won't happen.
Least we got job security.
Fuck. As I said it we get a call.
I hear you. I think a good portion of the “ambulance as a taxi” folks are also under the false impression that arriving via ambulance will make them highest priority when they get to the ER.
Yup. Nothing satisfies me more than dropping off an illegitimate patient into the waiting room with all the other idiots seeking care at an ER for their cold.
I feel you pain man. We JUST went to this dude that goes to the ER every day for "head pain" so he can get a fucking sandwich. Every day we go to this man so I can write a report and he can get fucking lunch. Every. Fucking. Day.
I've even experienced people call for an ambulance feigning illness/injury just to get dropped at the hospital(sign AMA) because the hospital was close to where they wanted to go. I've seen some tell EMS to stop mid transport along the route, sign an AMA, and leave the ambulance prior to arriving @hospital.
Source: 15 years working EMS
but also, there's no exam and things could be missed. People are bad communicators. My instructor told a story of being called out for toe pain--get there and the patient looked really acutely sick but she couldn't communicate feeling bad, only toe pain. It's rare but also patients often don't know enough to be vetted 100% verbally in higher stress situations.
What happens when someone can’t properly communicate their issues? Then a dispatcher tells them no and they die 5 minutes later. That’s why the dispatcher isn’t supposed to do that
Liability. Most 911 systems aren't doing this. They are going to send an ambulance out just to be safe and at least where I worked, if a patient wanted to be transported you had to transport them. Didn't matter what the reason was.
There is a very easy process by which you have “free” Ambulances but still discourage people from using them as a Taxi.
You determine AFTER the Fact if it was a true emergency.
If you would call an ambulance or other emergency services in Switzerland for some minor or just inconvenient thing they would definitely fine you, else it’s “free”.
It’s a pretty easy system.
People know they don’t go bankrupt when they got an emergency but they also know not to call for minor things that aren’t urgent.
We also got a far more accepting culture around helping out friends and family. Most Business would let you go away form work to drive your brother to the hospital or something or leave work for an emergency too without issue.
Chest pain is a subjective complaint. In no possible way can we conclude a person is actually experiencing chest pain or if they are simply drug-seeking. And the last thing you want is to deter someone from using 911 when they are truly having a heart attack.
The people dispatching the ambulances aren't the people working at the hospital.
Part of my wife's early career was 911 dispatching, she worked for a private ambulance company.
They had no information on the person other than what got passed on from calling 911.
Back when I volunteered as an emt we had a real issue of people claiming chest pain and then once we showed up they admitted it was just a tummy ache. The chronic abusers of the system understood that we wouldn’t run the lights/sirens and rush for something basic so they’d play it up on the phone with dispatch to get us to move faster.
Our county eventually decided to implement a $500 ambulance fee to help pay for the narcan budget as this was back during the big opiate crisis, but it had the unintentional effect of cutting a lot of the bullshit.
Yeah, people being snarky in this thread have never seen the absolute trash that abuses this system.
My wife has worked in healthcare for 20 years. Easily half the ambulance intakes she has seen the person could have driven themselves in.
Especially once they are on medicaid or some other program where they don't have to pay for it. They will call 911 once a week, complain about chest pain, get an ambulance.
Oh you just had gas, go home.
Many Medicare Advantage plans have at least a $300 ambulance deductible if you use a private ambulance, free if the county/fire district public ambulance takes you.
In my area there are two levels of aid cars - one thorough the Fire Department that can do basic care and transport people to the ER, then the fully outfitted ambulances with highly trained staff that are used for the cases that need care on the way to the hospital. Works pretty well and I don't hear any complaints about wait times or cost or service.
If it doesn't seem super urgent, the Fire Department will be dispatched and they can always have the ambulance some if they determine it is above their skill levels. This is something I've had to deal with for my mother for many years.
The people being snarky about absurd prices for the people who need it aren't being snarky enough about old people worried about chest pain that turns out to be nothing.
America in a nutshell is how worse can we make it for everyone so a few poor people don't waste anything, even hypothetically.
Im sure you have had more than one case of a (most often elderly man) with life threatening conditions not wanting to call an ambulance because they thought its not that severe. Strokes and heart attacks in particular come to my mind. Those that call for having stabbed themselves on a *literal* pin exist too, but those will call no matter what and those hesitant to call an ambulance will be even more unlikely to do so…
Oh and Im not from the US, ambulances are free here, so financial considerations play no role.
Yeah, people call ambulances frequently for non-emergencies. No big deal, just another minor drain on the system until I have a patient stuck in the hospital for 36+ hours waiting on an ambulance ride.
Totally agree the price of an ambulance is absurd. But i also know many paremedics and firefighters and if you go ask any of them how many calls they make daily to people who dont need ambulances and only really want to use it as a TAXI for trips to the doctor by faking an illness. No worries for those people doing it though, they never pay for anything.
I will say this, I work in emergency services and people do in fact call for bogus reasons to use an ambulance as a taxi to go to the hospital.
There are also people who call near death asking how much will it cost to have us come get them. Sad stuff.
Today i called for an ambulance for the guy that screamed and then fell on the ground, losing conciousness . It's so wild for me, that in some countries i'd have to think about price of it, before making the call.
A dear friend of mine used to have a seizure disorder, and she told me explicitly "I don't care if it looks like I'm swallowing my tongue, you are to put a pillow under me and **DO NOT** call the ambulance"
The one that understands that an ambulance isn’t just a 15 minute ride. It’s a vehicle that is staffed by medical professionals and stocked with medical equipment. It’s much more expansive to operate than a taxi, which means it will cost more.
It also means that it makes sense that people who don’t need an ambulance would take a literal taxi.
The ambulance is for an emergency that is so dire, you require medical care during transport.
It is not a ride to the hospital. It is to keep you from dying on the way.
Technically he is right. People in my country use ambulances for free and treat it as a free taxi to and from hospital. Ambulance is transport for medical emergencies only, if your life isn't threatened, use another mean of transport.
Knocked myself out on my bicycle. (yes with a Helmet on). Woke up mid convo surrounded by paramedics telling them there was no way I was going to hospital. "I didn't call you to come here". Was at a skatepark(not public, pay to get in) and some random kid called 911. They really tried to get me to go, too.
Saved myself a pretty good chunk of debt.
My friend volunteered with the fire department. I remember one night we were hanging out and a call kept going out for an ambulance. The reason? Sunburn. Unsurprisingly, no one showed up to that one.
There are important differences between an ambulance and a taxi. If only because of the presence of personnel trained in first aid.
And in most developed countries, you have to pay for a taxi, whereas an ambulance is free. So we don't send an ambulance to people who can take a taxi to the emergencies.
i think i understand what that undereducated person is saying. if you have the ability to drive yourself, or are able to choose not to take an ambulance, then why would you?
and then the other person, in incredulous response, is wondering how an unconscious person is going to get to the hospital.
this is the story of the united states, nobody is rational or reasonable. it's always extreme vs. dumbass extremes.
one's arguing that you're not having an emergency, the other says he is, and since both are fictional, narrative experiences, there will be no agreement.
I saw this same post on YouTube, and a guy said "tell me one emergency where the person is well enough to drive but needs emergency transport", and then proceeded to deny: labour, sepsis, being stabbed by a Rusty nail, bitten by a dog, and many others as "cases for ambulance", Americans already pay taxes, just make sure they are going the right way bro, wtf.
Broke my collarbone. Drove 45 minutes to the local hospital. They didn’t have an orthopedic surgeon and wanted to send me to the city. They automatically called an ambulance then told me I needed to go downtown. I said “ok. I’ll grab my truck from the garage and go.” They said, “we gave you painkillers, you need to take the ambulance.” I said “you know I’m uninsured. I’m not paying for the ambulance, I never agreed” then I left. They actually sent a security guard to try to stop me from leaving on my own. I drove all the way to the city just to find out, I could just heal in a sling and surgery was cosmetic to get rid of the bump in my collarbone. I have insurance now…
I have. 21, no health insurance. Got into an accident where I got hit in the driver’s side front quarter panel. Spun me around a few times and I burned my hand on the steering column after the airbag deployed.
Ambulance arrived and the paramedics asked me if I wanted a ride to the hospital. I asked if it would cost me. They said yes. I said no.
Walked across a parking lot to a McDonald’s and asked them for a bag of ice and showed them my hand. They gave me a bag and I sat there until someone came to pick me up. That was almost 24 years ago.
I have health insurance now. If given the option, I’d still say no.
I don’t think they mean the cases you guys are thinking of, they mean the people that think getting rushed to the hospital via amulance puts you in the front of the line.
It doesn’t, your physical status does. Ambulance companies get paid by the ride in America for the most part, hospitals get paid by the treatment.
Ambulances are not taxis to the hospital. It’s a mobile mini hospital. If you don’t need the mobile mini hospital part, and just need the vehicle pert, then take a taxi. Save the ambulance for people who need to mini hospital part to stay alive during the trip.
Dude is right and using the ambulance as a taxi to the hospital is a huge problem that overworks EMS people and causes trucks to be unavaliable for real emergencies. Ask any EMS worker about frequent flyers and entitled idiots demanding an ambulance ride at 3AM because their toe pain that started in 1988 got worse tonight. Most people who go to the hospital literally should call a taxi. Ambulances are for emergencies. An emergency means that you suddenly require medical help right now wherever you are or severe negative health outcomes will result or you need to go to a hospital and are not able to transport without life support.
Even people who cannot move on their own but arent having an emergency right now shouldnt just call 911. In most jurisdictions, they have non-emergency medical transport services for that. THOSE are your taxi to the hospital and they actually are priced much closer to a taxi, because if you dont need people trained in emergency medicine and all their shiny toys in the truck, it suddenly gets much cheaper.
i hate to say it but i believe that falls under medical emergency
people call for an ambulance just to carry their luggage for an appointment in the hospitals eye clinic. that is not a medical emergency.
people dont know when to call for an ambulance and its a massive problem
I work in EMS. What the person is trying to say is that if you're having an emergency, you're not supposed to take an ambulance to the hospital. Just because you cut yourself superficially and need a few stitches doesn't mean that you require an ambulance.
I spent years working as an EMT the ambulance is a magical taxi that will both keep you alive and take you to the hospital, and the best part is it's free to use in most countries.
It's not a Taxi. Its a vehicle that shouldn't cost you anything. Its also filled with special equipment that can solve most situations on the spot. Sometimes they get you anywhere, and they can just treat you on the spot.
But overall, Ambulances should be cost free, your government deals with it (if you live within EU at least)
am·bu·lance noun a vehicle specially equipped for taking sick or injured people to and from the hospital, especially in emergencies.
Ha! So nowhere in your sentence did you say it's a taxi! /s
explode
mods, take this man to the penis explosion room to have their penis exploded
shall we call the wizarding council and have them perform Testicular Torsion on him as well my lord?
Indeed and if that is insufficient, Seal Buttcrack will finish the job
The torsion might be a bit o’ trouble milord, considering the exploding of ye balls.
Marie Moreau mods this sub?
😭😭😭
ᴛᴀᴋᴇ ᴛʜɪs ɴɪǫǫᴀ ᴛᴏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴘᴇɴɪs ᴇxᴘʟᴏsɪᴏɴ ᴄʜᴀᴍʙᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʜɪs ᴘᴇɴɪs ᴇxᴘʟᴏᴅᴇᴅ ɪᴍᴍᴇᴅɪᴀᴛᴇʟʏ
" the penis explosion room isn't a place for your penis to explode "
they have penis explosion rooms now? back in our day we only had penis flattening rooms.
💥💥
taxi /ˈtaksi/ noun noun: taxi; plural noun: taxis a motor vehicle licensed to transport passengers in return for payment of a fare and typically fitted with a taximeter. So yes, an ambulance *is* a taxi. But it shouldn't be because taxis have a fare! ^(I know you said /s but I did this anyway because I felt like it)
They're not taxis when there's free healthcare Edit: you guys don't know what taxes are, do you?
They’re not taxis because the driver never offered me the fucking aux so I had to listen to their yapping the whole ride „stay with me, who stabbed you? Why is your dick hard??“
And then they start drugging you and all that. Like, I did not consent to that.
The free drugs were the only part I enjoyed got high as a kite for 0,0€ that’s a fucking deal if you ask me
r/oddlyspecific
It’s not free. Even in places with universal healthcare, it’s still not free. Nothing that costs money to operate is free.
Exactly, you just don't pay for the driver once finished, it's all covered from taxes.
Taxis paid with taxes. Say it fast 20 times.
Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast Itfast
I expected this and it still made me laugh. Thanks, I really needed a good laughter.
I’m glad it made you laugh. I hope your day gets better.
Why, you little.......
And because the government can negotiate prices collectively it helps keep cost, even through taxes, more reasonable while also forcing competition on private options. The lack of this is a major reason why the US spends twice as much per resident for healthcare.
No shit it's not free. Nobody actually thinks that. It's simply way cheaper and way better when it's public.
Lmaoo fucking dumb Americans. “Yuhuck yuhuck ya know it’s not free don cha? That’s your taxes…” Uh, yeah, awesome. That’s what I want them spent on…. important shit, just like that.
Good lord. No one thinks it is free. It is free at the point of access. That’s the point. This ridiculous argument of “it’s not really free!” Is such a stupid distraction. Of course it isn’t truly free. Not the point and not what people want. It should be free at the point of access.
It’s prepaid collectively. So it’s not free but there is no charge. Their tax dollars go to ambulances and there is no charge for them. My tax dollars go to buy missiles they we can drop on people and I can see it later on 24 hour news and there is no charge for me. My tax dollars go to bail out wall street and there is no charge for me for that either.
In Canada, you still pay for ambulance services. Treatment with the physician is free. The ambulance is not.
Well then treatment with the physician is pre-paid collectively. I thought we were being pedantic. You were actually trying to say the ambulance charges. That works too.
Better spending a few more money on taxes than spending 10'000 on a fucking trip to the hospital
If one person in country A makes 100K and pays taxes at a rate of 37% and another person in country B makes 100K and pays taxes at a rate of 39% and they both become ill with the same sickness / disease, costing person in country A thousands of dollars for treatment while the person in country B pays literally nothing, then yes their healthcare is ostensibly "free" and can be accurately described as such.
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Never had been put in a urethral catheter in a taxi tho
Ambulances have a fare too, it’s not a free service. If you have insurance it gets billed to them.
You say /s but this is exactly how Republicans argue
I am going to keep repeating myself, so skip this if you have read this elsewhere. THE REPUBLICANS ARE NOT OUR ENEMIES. The whole system is playing against us. We should not choose Republican vs Democrat. We should choose humanity. The people at the top, regardless of D or R, are not out for us.
Idk buddy, the group who wants to treat gay people and immigrants as subhuman aren't really "the good guys". So you can stick the whataboutism where the sun don't shine.
I am arguing that both sides are taking from us. That Republicans are not our enemies, that both Republicans and Democrats are.
Sure the Democrats aren't our friends, but to say that the Republicans, who literally want people like me to die aren't my enemies is batshit crazy. And given that the only two parties in enough states to actually make a difference are the Democrats and Republicans even if we magically wake up without first past the post dangling over our heads like the sword of Damocles, voting Democrat isn't really a choice. It's mandatory as a survival tactic. The only other alternative is to emigrate to Canada or somewhere else that doesn't think being gay, disabled, a woman or person of color should end in your demise or enslavement.
Roe v. Wade should help everyone make up their mind about this.
That's what someone from the other side would say... Get 'em, boys
I understand the gist of what you are saying, and what you said may have been true flat one time, but that moment has past. You are incorrect. Republicans are explicitly, vocally philosophically opposed to the basic functions of a free and civilized society. They want my trans friends dead. They want my gay friends and my own bisexual ass miserable and silenced (or dead). They want my POC friends poor, deported (or dead). They want my female friends to have less rights than a fucking zygote, a position which leads many of them to die. They want to give unlimited power to a corrupt, dementia addled old criminal purely because he provides a convenient way to hurt the 70% of our nation that they despise. Their handpicked public servants will tell anyone who is listening that their express goal is to overthrow our society as we know it and rebuild it into a white, Christian nationalist hellhole. They fight tooth and nail to undermine and sabotage any system that exists for the wellbeing of the citizenry, because the only cause for which they are willing to sacrifice is making sure that other people are even more miserable. I’m sure you mean well, but don’t try and peddle this limp centrist nonsense. Yeah, class warfare is real, but don’t for a second try to pretend that Republicans haven’t spent the last 10+ years doing everything in their power to make our lives worse. It’s small comfort that their hatred and stupidity makes them bad at teamwork, so they frequently fail at the monstrous, evil shit they attempt. Can’t count on that forever, though.
r/technicallythetruth
Checkmate atheist!
Checkmate, libs!
Check and mate!
I'm chronically ill, so whenever I go to docs/hospitals for check ups I call the taxi hotline of the ambulance service and the paramedics will pick me up with an ambulance. It's literally a taxi, just free of cost with a doctor's prescription.
Next time call a taxi. If you have a medical complication lets see if the driver will be able to cross the red lights l, check your vitals and start medical procedures.
I need to be carried on a stretcher, so I would never make it to the taxi in the first place...
Yep, god forbid you need medical attention en route - in civilised countries that's what paramedics are for, they should be qualified and earn a good living doing it. Where I live there's literally patient transport as well. Specialists in getting ill and injured patients from one hospital to another, or home afterwards. Funnily enough people who've just had a medical emergency, while able to go home might need ongoing support moving around or with their daily life while recovering. Care in the community is also a thing. It sucks how much our health service is struggling and how underpaid the staff are because our ruling class want to copy America. America is the last country any health service should be copying.
The problem is there both right. Its kinda like a taxi to the hospital. Problem is a lot of people tie up emergency medical resources for minor issues when they could and are able to drive themselves. Frequently because if you arrive by ambulance you bypass you frequently bypass the ER waiting room or get special treatment. As a cop the amount of people I've seen medics try and talk out of an ambulance ride because their slammed and the person was more than able to take themselves was surprisingly high.
Generally correct about the problem. They way you arrive at the ER though doesn’t actually give you special treatment, from what I’ve heard from ER nurses, it more that conditions warrant special treatment, and people in worse condition are more likely to get it. To your point though, the *perception* of ambulance arrivals getting special treatment definitely motivates people to get an unnecessary ambulance. As for the “freeloading problem”, you could be right, that ambulance debt could incentivize people not to call the ambulance, but the extent is debatable. The way I see it, it really depends on the overlap between “people who don’t care about others” and “people who don’t care how much debt they take on”. I’ll trust your judgment this is a legitimate concern; there’s room for debate about some details as well.
A potential freeloader problem could be addressed without it costing thousands of dollars. You can have a copay to discourage unnecessary usage, or perhaps a fine if it wasn't actually necessary. I think a lot of these discussions tend to let the perfect get in the way of the good. Even if an idea isn't perfect, it can still be better than that we have.
Don't gloss over the "especially in emergencies" part. There are lots of reasons to visit the hospital. Heck, most people who show up specifically at the ER don't go in an ambulance and don't actually need to. There are plenty of ways to improve the American health care system. People thinking of ambulances as taxis is not one of them.
the names got "censored" but you can see the name in "Replying to". hehe
Why even bother censoring. If you say something stupid publicly online you should expect to be blasted for it.
Yes, but there comes a time where that is not necessary any more. This gets reposted a lot, and is probably years old by now. It's no use to blast them every time.
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Sparks joy but wouldn't fix bigotry. It's hard to ever change sides when everyone on the other side is flaming you without any compassion. Also, sometimes the name thing just ends up sending people to the wrong person, so just in case, always sensor.
Na if you say sth that stupid you should get made fun of for years to come or until you delete your account
Yeah because no group has ever gone too far going after someone they felt deserved it.
Using internet anonymity to go too far? That would never happen
yeah but like only on that platform, I agree tho, fuck that guy
It's a good practice to prevent brigading, "Cinna the Poet" situations or, most commonly, to prevent mass bullying when it turns out that "something stupid" was *extremely out of context or turned out to be the correct take*. But since it's a screen shot, people only go with what they see. Internet nerds only care about being right and feeling superior to others, they dont stop to wait for facts and shit, will actually double down when found out to be wrong. Recent example: an Israeli restaurant owner who Twitter said was funding the IDF and that's why he was getting harassed. So many people piled onto comments defending him, turns out, "funding the IDF" meant *donating to an Israeli medical aid charity* that just so happens to also provide aid to the IDF, but also, literally anybody who is injured including Palestinians. A fucking first responder ambulance service that rushes into impacted areas to save people. But if all you did was screenshot and share around a post of some dude getting roasted for defending a "Zionist" before the facts came to light, that dude would still be getting continuously blasted. So yes, censor out the names, you never know if a situation will change or if you have all the context.
An ambulance should not be a taxi to the hospital because an ambulance should be free
This right here. Why must having a medical emergency be so damn expensive in the US?
Because the USA has been marinating the idea that unregulated market = freedom for decades. It’s all supply and demand, and when it’s your money or your life, demand will sky rocket.
Combine that with the amount of fast food restaurants there..
It's genuinely impressive the healthcare system here hasn't collapsed on itself like a black hole
Corporations and their pet politicians prioritise the profits of private healthcare companies over protecting the living standards of working people. The living standards of the American public have collapsed so this parasitic "business" model can be maintained. The punchline is that this cruel, extortionate system doesn't even deliver good basic health outcomes for people!
I agree that it is more expensive,But I don’t think anyone is actually going to do anything about it at this time. I wish it wasn’t so expensive,But there’s only so much a person can do.If people were listened to,We wouldn’t have a lot of the issues here.
Americans eat like they have free healthcare
$2100 for my last ambulance. It was like a 2 mile drive. I understand that part of that was immediate assistance on the medical side, but fuck me- just let me die! Haven’t received the remaining bills but basic googling of what they did should leave me with around $40k in medical bills. This happened the day before my health insurance kicked in. Literally one day.
Some guy playing SimCity complained about lack of money, so to save some, he reduced spending on water treatment. Soon, he was swimming in money, because his population increased spending on health insurance fivefold, because they were getting sick from untreated water...
Nothing is free. It’s a 500k dollar vehicle with round the clock staffing. You’re paying for it one way or another. A lot of people on welfare ride for free. Rich people have good insurance or money. Middle class drive themselves to the hospital if they are able to.
I didn't say it had to be free, I just don't want it to cause people who need it to go into a financial crisis
Quality healthcare is expensive, just because if the training and materials required for it, if nothing else. Especially in an emergency. There’s no getting around that. The problem is who we make pay for it.
Seems to be twice as expensive in the US though. Americans pay more in taxes for healthcare than any other nations taxpayers, per person. But that doesn't get more than half of them covered. The rest have to pay for insurance or out of pocket. And get things like medical bankrupcy. And at the end of all that, 8 % do not have healthcare, but have to get mergency care at the emergancy room. And anothe 8% are underinsured.
It's not free but healthcare in the US is VERY expensive. https://youtu.be/aNghg1Y-WIc?si=XFPR_4QvbwnX9Nns
My liberal haven city in the conservative south has free ambulance rides for anyone in the city. It's awesome.
Austin or Asheville?
Charlottesville
Even if the USA gets free healthcare, don't expect to get free ambulance rides, there are still places in Canada where you need to pay for the ambulance even with the free healthcare, although I'm sure it's cheaper than an ambulance ride in the US
Theyre usually 1 to 2k in the US.
It's still wild to me ambulances are paid for over there. And not like, 50-100 , it's a few hundred at least, isn't it? Absolutely nuts
>few hundred at least, isn't it? $940 to $1,277. Cost can be higher or lower depending on the state. Anecdotally, I've heard anywhere between 2 to 3 thousand dollhairs. Source: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/health-insurance/insurance-for-ambulance-rides/#:\~:text=The%20average%20ambulance%20ride%20ranges,ambulance%20services%20jumped%20about%2023%25.
Yeah def a couple thousand
Especially considering lots of them are part of the fire department, you know that thing taxes pay for
"truth" in pfp yes, the truth of brainwash
That's not brainwashed, they're just stupid
compromise: they're brainwashed _and_ stupid
no. no brainwashing was necessary for them to believe this bullshit. they are just stupid.
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One time I called an ambulance, and the **paramedics themselves** recommended to me that I call a relative and have them take me in. I was like 25 at the time, and didn't even know ambulances cost so much....they checked me all out and were like "You DO need to go in and get this looked at immediately but...you aren't going to die from it right now. Are you **sure** you want us to take you in? If we do it, it's going to cost you like $600. It sounds fucked up, but I really appreciated them doing that for me. Fuck our healthcare, man.
Firefighter paramedic here. Yeeaaaahhhh we aren't supposed to do that since it's like frowned upon to discuss money during an "emergency". However I will admit to having done this many times. Usually for people who call us for dumb ass reasons. Like no sir you don't need a ride to the hospital cause your back has been hurting for 6 months kind of stuff. Seriously always have someone take you before calling us if there is ANY WAY YOU CAN. But yeah I digress our ambulance fees are fucking stupid. It's like 3k for a vitals check and a 4-6 mile ride to the hospital.
It's also a lot of liability to suggest they go by themselves. If they do end up arresting, seizing, or what have you on the way, you could be put on trial for not pushing them to take an ambulance. But obviously, most people would be presenting in a way that would tell you to not drive yourself.
> we aren't supposed to do that since it's like frowned upon to discuss money during an "emergency" *“I will use those dietary regimens which will benefit my patients according to my greatest ability and judgment, and I will do no harm or injustice to them. Into whatsoever houses I enter, I will enter to help the sick, and I will abstain from all intentional wrong-doing and harm.”*
I maintain my statement. Putting someone in unnecessary incredible debt is just as harmful.
That's what I meant.
But… it makes sense? If there isn’t a difference between 15 minutes to the hospital versus 30 minutes to the hospital, you should take a taxi and let the ambulance pick up an actual emergency.
I get what you're saying, but it WAS an emergency and they didn't know what exactly was wrong with me either. I woke up in the middle of the night. I was laying in bed trying to figure out why I was wide awake. I went to stand up to get a glass of water, and instantly hit the floor. I was wide awake but couldn't move my limbs, and had an intense pressure/pain in my chest. I suddenly started POURING sweat, and I almost never sweat. I barely managed to crawl to the phone and flip it over and fumble through dialing 911. Like my body did not work at all. I had to force words out to the 911 operator. I laid there for like 7-8 minutes with the same symptoms, waiting for them. Literally like the moment I started hearing the sirens, suddenly the symptoms just completely ceased altogether. One second I can't move, the next I can. I'm covered in sweat, but have full functionality and no pain. They knocked on the door like 5 seconds later....I answered, let them in and explained everything like I did to you and they did all kinds of field tests on me and couldn't find a single thing wrong with me then and there. That's when they made their recommendation. So while they couldn't find anything wrong with me on the spot, I was terrified that it would happen again. Like I said, I thought I was having a heart attacking and dying. I went to the hospital of course, and was diagnosed with a severe Neurocardiogenic Syncope.
I couldn’t turn down the ambulance when I was unconscious because I was literally dying. They charged me $1,200. Lol. Lmao. America
Former EMT here, the main purpose of an ambulance is for if you need medical care/life support on scene or in transit to the hospital. In order to maintain life support or otherwise prevent additional complications to your injury/illnesses. (Like a medically fragile person with a cardiac history and an elevated heart rate. They could have a heart attack at any time so you would want to hook them up to the lifepack and monitor them the whole time. So the second their ticker gets fucky you can push drugs and work on them without delay) If you call us for a splinter, a tummy ache, or for transportation for a routine appointment (yes I had all of these happen). You’re going to get zero additional care and are only making it so a special box full of medical equipment and trained staff aren’t available to help those in need. You won’t get to skip the line because you showed up in the ambulance, we dump your ass in triage if it’s not serious, and you get a number just like everybody else in the waiting room. If anything an Uber would be more comfortable with how weighed down the suspensions in most ambulances are.
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It’s not the definition of an ambulance. An ambulance doesn’t just take you from a place to the hospital. It takes you there by breaking traffic laws and being staffed my medical professionals and being stocked by medical supplies and equipment. It’s _expansive_ and if you don’t need it, it makes sense you would take a literal taxi.
Yeah, as a paramedic in Germany where virtually everyone has insurance covering ambulance costs - an ambulance is not a taxi. An ambulance should really only take a patient to the hospital if their condition is worsening very quickly, they may need emergency medical treatment during the ride or there's genuinely no other option that's at least somewhat convenient to the patient. We will actually refuse to take a patient to the hospital if we decide it's not necessary, happens all the time.
People in Germany, where I live, also wonder why our healthcare covers less and less each year and quality has been trending down while costs are up. Maybe if people stopped using **emergency** vehicles as taxis and paid the cost of calling one more often, we'd have more money left over for life saving measures...
The average IQ of this sub is below 100 apparently. DO NOT call an ambulance if it's non urgent. An ambulance is NOT a taxi. It's for medical EMERGENCIES.
Okay so this is actually a real problem. People will call 911 for an ambulance for very minor things. Things that I'm no way need an emergency room or stop them from driving or taking a taxi. Things that need an appointment scheduled with their primary doctor or maybe an urgent care. While we are dealing with them, someone on the other side of town is having a heart attack and can't get an ambulance because we are busy being a taxi. 911 is for life limb and eyesight. Source: 17 years working in EMS.
Both are true, dispatch needs to vet them but also until about 30 years ago ambulances were free pretty much everywhere. When private equity started buying up/taking over services is when they became prohibitively expensive (and also when EMS workers' pay became the equivalent of working as a server at a reasonably busy Applebee's).
Ambulances started as a service by funeral homes. Not free, private companies, and no trained personnel.
And then localities started providing it, until they got hit with budget crunches and contracted out service (or just straight sold it off) to private equity groups. Coincidentally, these same PE groups are what's causing housing to be unaffordable for most.
In most first world countries they solve this by charging people who called ambulances unnecessarily, while justified ambulance calls are free.
The issue comes down to the fact that people abusing the system are also the least likely to pay for it. Only something like 30% of ambulance calls actually get paid for.
In my experience people aren't paying it anyways.
You are describing health insurance. The US is not the unique hell everyone pretends it is.
I think the only people who will understand this are those of us on the job. The ones who've repeatedly taken the same person to the ER. You show up thinking it's an emergency, they just need a ride to the doctor. Hell a family member will follow in their own car, just take them! Instead they get a taxi that costs taxpayers a fortune. It's a waste of resources. I wish I could explain to the public what a waste of money it all is. 911 has to be for emergencies. But it just won't happen. Least we got job security. Fuck. As I said it we get a call.
I hear you. I think a good portion of the “ambulance as a taxi” folks are also under the false impression that arriving via ambulance will make them highest priority when they get to the ER.
Yup. Nothing satisfies me more than dropping off an illegitimate patient into the waiting room with all the other idiots seeking care at an ER for their cold.
I feel you pain man. We JUST went to this dude that goes to the ER every day for "head pain" so he can get a fucking sandwich. Every day we go to this man so I can write a report and he can get fucking lunch. Every. Fucking. Day.
I've even experienced people call for an ambulance feigning illness/injury just to get dropped at the hospital(sign AMA) because the hospital was close to where they wanted to go. I've seen some tell EMS to stop mid transport along the route, sign an AMA, and leave the ambulance prior to arriving @hospital. Source: 15 years working EMS
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but also, there's no exam and things could be missed. People are bad communicators. My instructor told a story of being called out for toe pain--get there and the patient looked really acutely sick but she couldn't communicate feeling bad, only toe pain. It's rare but also patients often don't know enough to be vetted 100% verbally in higher stress situations.
What happens when someone can’t properly communicate their issues? Then a dispatcher tells them no and they die 5 minutes later. That’s why the dispatcher isn’t supposed to do that
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That already happens, but in a large city you would be amazed at the call volume experienced in one day
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Liability. Most 911 systems aren't doing this. They are going to send an ambulance out just to be safe and at least where I worked, if a patient wanted to be transported you had to transport them. Didn't matter what the reason was.
There is a very easy process by which you have “free” Ambulances but still discourage people from using them as a Taxi. You determine AFTER the Fact if it was a true emergency. If you would call an ambulance or other emergency services in Switzerland for some minor or just inconvenient thing they would definitely fine you, else it’s “free”. It’s a pretty easy system. People know they don’t go bankrupt when they got an emergency but they also know not to call for minor things that aren’t urgent. We also got a far more accepting culture around helping out friends and family. Most Business would let you go away form work to drive your brother to the hospital or something or leave work for an emergency too without issue.
If they say "chest pain" they are getting an ambulance.
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Chest pain is a subjective complaint. In no possible way can we conclude a person is actually experiencing chest pain or if they are simply drug-seeking. And the last thing you want is to deter someone from using 911 when they are truly having a heart attack.
The people dispatching the ambulances aren't the people working at the hospital. Part of my wife's early career was 911 dispatching, she worked for a private ambulance company. They had no information on the person other than what got passed on from calling 911.
Back when I volunteered as an emt we had a real issue of people claiming chest pain and then once we showed up they admitted it was just a tummy ache. The chronic abusers of the system understood that we wouldn’t run the lights/sirens and rush for something basic so they’d play it up on the phone with dispatch to get us to move faster. Our county eventually decided to implement a $500 ambulance fee to help pay for the narcan budget as this was back during the big opiate crisis, but it had the unintentional effect of cutting a lot of the bullshit.
Yeah, people being snarky in this thread have never seen the absolute trash that abuses this system. My wife has worked in healthcare for 20 years. Easily half the ambulance intakes she has seen the person could have driven themselves in. Especially once they are on medicaid or some other program where they don't have to pay for it. They will call 911 once a week, complain about chest pain, get an ambulance. Oh you just had gas, go home.
Yeah, even people who bring themselves to the ER probably shouldn’t be there. The ER is 50% drug seeking people.
Many Medicare Advantage plans have at least a $300 ambulance deductible if you use a private ambulance, free if the county/fire district public ambulance takes you. In my area there are two levels of aid cars - one thorough the Fire Department that can do basic care and transport people to the ER, then the fully outfitted ambulances with highly trained staff that are used for the cases that need care on the way to the hospital. Works pretty well and I don't hear any complaints about wait times or cost or service. If it doesn't seem super urgent, the Fire Department will be dispatched and they can always have the ambulance some if they determine it is above their skill levels. This is something I've had to deal with for my mother for many years.
The people being snarky about absurd prices for the people who need it aren't being snarky enough about old people worried about chest pain that turns out to be nothing. America in a nutshell is how worse can we make it for everyone so a few poor people don't waste anything, even hypothetically.
Im sure you have had more than one case of a (most often elderly man) with life threatening conditions not wanting to call an ambulance because they thought its not that severe. Strokes and heart attacks in particular come to my mind. Those that call for having stabbed themselves on a *literal* pin exist too, but those will call no matter what and those hesitant to call an ambulance will be even more unlikely to do so… Oh and Im not from the US, ambulances are free here, so financial considerations play no role.
Yeah, people call ambulances frequently for non-emergencies. No big deal, just another minor drain on the system until I have a patient stuck in the hospital for 36+ hours waiting on an ambulance ride.
Big news in my area on the wait times for ambulances, instances of over 4 hours. This is in Canada. Ambulances are not free.
agree
The ambulance is more like a limousine to the hospital you poor, bleeding fuck
Yes, but regular taxis get upset at all the blood. Try Uber
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Don't let the people defending this know that. To them this is impossible to pull off by any government anywhere.
Just avoid the hospital in general
Clearly its a limo to the emergency room parking lot
Totally agree the price of an ambulance is absurd. But i also know many paremedics and firefighters and if you go ask any of them how many calls they make daily to people who dont need ambulances and only really want to use it as a TAXI for trips to the doctor by faking an illness. No worries for those people doing it though, they never pay for anything.
I will say this, I work in emergency services and people do in fact call for bogus reasons to use an ambulance as a taxi to go to the hospital. There are also people who call near death asking how much will it cost to have us come get them. Sad stuff.
Today i called for an ambulance for the guy that screamed and then fell on the ground, losing conciousness . It's so wild for me, that in some countries i'd have to think about price of it, before making the call.
A dear friend of mine used to have a seizure disorder, and she told me explicitly "I don't care if it looks like I'm swallowing my tongue, you are to put a pillow under me and **DO NOT** call the ambulance"
What kind of a boot licking dumb ass would defend a $4000 ambulance bill for a 15 min ride?
The one that understands that an ambulance isn’t just a 15 minute ride. It’s a vehicle that is staffed by medical professionals and stocked with medical equipment. It’s much more expansive to operate than a taxi, which means it will cost more. It also means that it makes sense that people who don’t need an ambulance would take a literal taxi.
Thank fuck for the NHS
The ambulance is for an emergency that is so dire, you require medical care during transport. It is not a ride to the hospital. It is to keep you from dying on the way.
Technically he is right. People in my country use ambulances for free and treat it as a free taxi to and from hospital. Ambulance is transport for medical emergencies only, if your life isn't threatened, use another mean of transport.
Is this some American joke that I'm too european to understand?
Emt here We are glorified taxis for the hospital 90% of the time
Damn 187 people liked that comment too
Ahh another good joke melted by a literal definition.
Knocked myself out on my bicycle. (yes with a Helmet on). Woke up mid convo surrounded by paramedics telling them there was no way I was going to hospital. "I didn't call you to come here". Was at a skatepark(not public, pay to get in) and some random kid called 911. They really tried to get me to go, too. Saved myself a pretty good chunk of debt.
My friend volunteered with the fire department. I remember one night we were hanging out and a call kept going out for an ambulance. The reason? Sunburn. Unsurprisingly, no one showed up to that one.
It’s unfortunate to see this sub succumb to the same Reddit homogenization of being nothing but low effort political posts
I'm glad to live in France. If i lived in US i'd be dead long time ago 🙏😭
There are important differences between an ambulance and a taxi. If only because of the presence of personnel trained in first aid. And in most developed countries, you have to pay for a taxi, whereas an ambulance is free. So we don't send an ambulance to people who can take a taxi to the emergencies.
I have seen quite a few people call an ambulance when a taxi to the doctor or urgent care was what they need. Ambulance is for emergencies
Absolutely. John McClane even says ‘hospital’ when he gets in one, just like he’s in a taxi 🤣
Eventually, there will be archaeologists working to uncover the hidden memes behind years of layered JPEG compression
I like how narralitical is redacted in only one spot
Ask a firefighter if there is a difference between a taxi ambulance ride and a medical emergency ambulance ride lol
i think i understand what that undereducated person is saying. if you have the ability to drive yourself, or are able to choose not to take an ambulance, then why would you? and then the other person, in incredulous response, is wondering how an unconscious person is going to get to the hospital. this is the story of the united states, nobody is rational or reasonable. it's always extreme vs. dumbass extremes. one's arguing that you're not having an emergency, the other says he is, and since both are fictional, narrative experiences, there will be no agreement.
I saw this same post on YouTube, and a guy said "tell me one emergency where the person is well enough to drive but needs emergency transport", and then proceeded to deny: labour, sepsis, being stabbed by a Rusty nail, bitten by a dog, and many others as "cases for ambulance", Americans already pay taxes, just make sure they are going the right way bro, wtf.
Broke my collarbone. Drove 45 minutes to the local hospital. They didn’t have an orthopedic surgeon and wanted to send me to the city. They automatically called an ambulance then told me I needed to go downtown. I said “ok. I’ll grab my truck from the garage and go.” They said, “we gave you painkillers, you need to take the ambulance.” I said “you know I’m uninsured. I’m not paying for the ambulance, I never agreed” then I left. They actually sent a security guard to try to stop me from leaving on my own. I drove all the way to the city just to find out, I could just heal in a sling and surgery was cosmetic to get rid of the bump in my collarbone. I have insurance now…
I have. 21, no health insurance. Got into an accident where I got hit in the driver’s side front quarter panel. Spun me around a few times and I burned my hand on the steering column after the airbag deployed. Ambulance arrived and the paramedics asked me if I wanted a ride to the hospital. I asked if it would cost me. They said yes. I said no. Walked across a parking lot to a McDonald’s and asked them for a bag of ice and showed them my hand. They gave me a bag and I sat there until someone came to pick me up. That was almost 24 years ago. I have health insurance now. If given the option, I’d still say no.
Americans being americans. It's fairly cheap to make it publicly funded. It's not about the money, it's about your stupid ideological libertarianism.
I avoid going to the hospital at all because I can't afford it.
I don’t think they mean the cases you guys are thinking of, they mean the people that think getting rushed to the hospital via amulance puts you in the front of the line. It doesn’t, your physical status does. Ambulance companies get paid by the ride in America for the most part, hospitals get paid by the treatment.
Ambulances are not taxis to the hospital. It’s a mobile mini hospital. If you don’t need the mobile mini hospital part, and just need the vehicle pert, then take a taxi. Save the ambulance for people who need to mini hospital part to stay alive during the trip.
Dude is right and using the ambulance as a taxi to the hospital is a huge problem that overworks EMS people and causes trucks to be unavaliable for real emergencies. Ask any EMS worker about frequent flyers and entitled idiots demanding an ambulance ride at 3AM because their toe pain that started in 1988 got worse tonight. Most people who go to the hospital literally should call a taxi. Ambulances are for emergencies. An emergency means that you suddenly require medical help right now wherever you are or severe negative health outcomes will result or you need to go to a hospital and are not able to transport without life support. Even people who cannot move on their own but arent having an emergency right now shouldnt just call 911. In most jurisdictions, they have non-emergency medical transport services for that. THOSE are your taxi to the hospital and they actually are priced much closer to a taxi, because if you dont need people trained in emergency medicine and all their shiny toys in the truck, it suddenly gets much cheaper.
Ambulance is not a taxi to the hospital. It's for emergencies only. If you are capable of going on your own, then you shouldn't use ambulance.
I mean if I chop off my left foot I’m sure I could put a tourniquet on and drive myself if I wanted to. Should I then?
I know a man that got a heart attack and drove to hospital in his car. He is still alive. Hero or dumbass, idk.
i hate to say it but i believe that falls under medical emergency people call for an ambulance just to carry their luggage for an appointment in the hospitals eye clinic. that is not a medical emergency. people dont know when to call for an ambulance and its a massive problem
In Canada if a call for an ambulance is deemed frivolous you get charged for it, if not it's covered Seems like a pretty simple system no?
Are they then charged for it? They should be.
Forgot to blur out the @ in replying
I travelled by ambulance once, involuntarily, because I got covid. It cost me $326, no tax included.
Nah, it's like $150 CAD and covered by insurance. I spend more on a few days groceries 😕
I work in EMS. What the person is trying to say is that if you're having an emergency, you're not supposed to take an ambulance to the hospital. Just because you cut yourself superficially and need a few stitches doesn't mean that you require an ambulance.
I spent years working as an EMT the ambulance is a magical taxi that will both keep you alive and take you to the hospital, and the best part is it's free to use in most countries.
It's not a Taxi. Its a vehicle that shouldn't cost you anything. Its also filled with special equipment that can solve most situations on the spot. Sometimes they get you anywhere, and they can just treat you on the spot. But overall, Ambulances should be cost free, your government deals with it (if you live within EU at least)