EMTs in my area always do a great job and warn people that if they cart you out, it could be expensive. A cap would help too.
*”The committee is recommending patients be charged the lesser of a $100 or 10% of what insurance companies must pay for an ambulance ride. The insurance company would be responsible for the rest.”*
Let’s now play the fun game of “How Much Will Premiums Increase?”
This will almost certainly not happen anytime soon and will devastate some fire departments budgets. They make BANK off of ambulance rides.
No one should have to deal with a huge charge for an emergency visit.
Personally I think they should put a cap and the cap only applies in emergency situations.
I have a family friend on my in laws side- who is an EMT.
Most of his calls are non-emergent with people basically asking to be taxied to the hospital.
He gave me an example of a guy with a stubbed toe…. DEMANDING they take him. Meanwhile a true emergency came in super close to their location. But due to rules they had to take the guy with the stubbed toe.
Just seems like it could be a great way to prioritize actual emergencies so the crazies stop.
Please do.
$1200 for a 10-minute ride, being driven by a couple of guys making $13/hr is ridiculous.
Healthcare is insane. Hospitals are being bought and then are either closed or so lean that it’s affecting patient care. I recently experienced it first hand while in the fucking ICU with a family member. Our nurse just fucking disappeared and you’re specifically assigned one. Her manager reassigned her to another floor without telling anyone. Kept getting the nurse assistants that couldn’t do much but promised they’d reach out to the actual nurse. They never did.
Corewell Health can suck all the dicks.
Edit: What makes this worse is that she was in pain for hours while nurses said they’re “working on it” despite having an order for morphine and painkillers every couple hours.
We also had to be an advocate for her because doctors/nurses didn’t give a fuck. There were definitely some that cared but WAY too many that didn’t.
Then the nurse manager blamed us for not understanding. She shifted the blame to us and not her or her inept staff.
Or just have universal healthcare that covers ambulances.
The problem is people abuse this already. 🥲
None of this stuff should be private enterprise.
Period.
Do you want to have ambulance service to your house? Of course. Do you want it to bankrupt your family? Of course *not*.
Only the government can provide that sort of service, the sort where the cost doesn’t matter, and everyone gets served.
100 dollars won’t cover the readiness costs to be able to respond let alone the cost of the service.
Shouldn’t ambulance rides be part of the services we get when we pay our taxes to towns/counties/states? They don’t charge to bring out all those fire trucks whenever they have to put out a fire and the police don’t charge if they have to come out. Why is EMS a separate thing that we have to pay for but other emergency services are “free?”
Our healthcare system is criminal. Paying for life-saving services is insane.
Maybe we could make something like ambulance rides for people in health emergencies not something that the free market has to solve with its directive of maximizing profits?
100$ for the ride and 2,400$ to strap you down to the bed and keep the doors shut.
If ambulances were only $100 I’d still be alive today.
The US pays me .655 cents per mile driven in my vehicle for company purposes. That seems fair to me.
(maybe cap that for super rural areas? I wouldn’t know that distance and if an ambulance even gets called at 100 miles out (still less than $100 – $65.50))
While I agree ambulances should be free it could cause abuse of an already over burdened system. The amount of BS calls of pts who do not need to go by ambulance is already staggering. Either give EMS providers more autonomy to make decisions of whether or not to transport someone or bill the shit out of people who call for every stubbed toe.
Everywhere I’ve ever lived in the US, the ambulances are part of the fire department, which is paid for by my property taxes. When I called the fire department and they sent three trucks and a battalion chief for a malfunctioning smoke detector, there was no charge. Why do we get charged for the ambulance ride if they’re part of the fire department that’s paid for by my taxes? Serious question.
In my small town It cost $1350.00 for a 2.5 mile ambulance ride to go from the hospital to the airport. The airplane ride was $62k. The 8 mile ambulance ride at the other end was $3500.
Luckily I’m on that socialist Medicare, otherwise I would have declared bankruptcy. It good to have great health insurance
Ambulance rides are free in Japan. Why can’t the richest country in the world figure this out?
“Taxi!!!!”
No more private hospitals. America already has the most expensive medical system. It goes to show what happens when a corporation buys a politician. We all suffer.
Do you have to pay for the firefighters to save your ass in a fire or pull you out of a burning car? I thought that was ridiculous but typing it out.. idk lol
“It feels bad to feel like you are getting ripped off by these people that are supposed to be proving you lifesaving services,”
How is this being ripped off? If the patient doesn’t need emergency care, don’t call an ambulance. It’s not a taxi. Medics are not Uber drivers.
People showed up within a few minutes and provided emergency medical care.
If we are not going to have universal healthcare, an ambulance service shouldn’t be the ones getting shafted.
The amount of commenters in here who think ambulances provide nothing but a ride is staggering, hilarious, and also sad.
I’ve seen my dad in a state of emergency refuse an ambulance ride and drive himself to the hospital 100% against recommendation from the paramedics. Americans should not have to choose between death, and life with financial destruction.
Why are people trying to solve problems backwards these days?
Student loans: Let’s forgive the debt instead of fixing the issue.
Ambulance costs: Let’s make a law to make the cost so low instead of increasing municipal taxes or furthuring public healthcare.
My experience riding in an ambulance for about ten miles was it felt as bumpy as riding in the back of a pickup truck. Wouldn’t you think there would be a padded bed or air cushion or decent shocks on the vehicle? $800. A limo woulda been cheaper but there was the potential need for an EMT. Oh that….
Good. Its an eye opener to get a 2k ambulance ride that lasted all of 10 minutes.
29 comments
EMTs in my area always do a great job and warn people that if they cart you out, it could be expensive. A cap would help too.
*”The committee is recommending patients be charged the lesser of a $100 or 10% of what insurance companies must pay for an ambulance ride. The insurance company would be responsible for the rest.”*
Let’s now play the fun game of “How Much Will Premiums Increase?”
This will almost certainly not happen anytime soon and will devastate some fire departments budgets. They make BANK off of ambulance rides.
No one should have to deal with a huge charge for an emergency visit.
Personally I think they should put a cap and the cap only applies in emergency situations.
I have a family friend on my in laws side- who is an EMT.
Most of his calls are non-emergent with people basically asking to be taxied to the hospital.
He gave me an example of a guy with a stubbed toe…. DEMANDING they take him. Meanwhile a true emergency came in super close to their location. But due to rules they had to take the guy with the stubbed toe.
Just seems like it could be a great way to prioritize actual emergencies so the crazies stop.
Please do.
$1200 for a 10-minute ride, being driven by a couple of guys making $13/hr is ridiculous.
Healthcare is insane. Hospitals are being bought and then are either closed or so lean that it’s affecting patient care. I recently experienced it first hand while in the fucking ICU with a family member. Our nurse just fucking disappeared and you’re specifically assigned one. Her manager reassigned her to another floor without telling anyone. Kept getting the nurse assistants that couldn’t do much but promised they’d reach out to the actual nurse. They never did.
Corewell Health can suck all the dicks.
Edit: What makes this worse is that she was in pain for hours while nurses said they’re “working on it” despite having an order for morphine and painkillers every couple hours.
We also had to be an advocate for her because doctors/nurses didn’t give a fuck. There were definitely some that cared but WAY too many that didn’t.
Then the nurse manager blamed us for not understanding. She shifted the blame to us and not her or her inept staff.
Or just have universal healthcare that covers ambulances.
The problem is people abuse this already. 🥲
None of this stuff should be private enterprise.
Period.
Do you want to have ambulance service to your house? Of course. Do you want it to bankrupt your family? Of course *not*.
Only the government can provide that sort of service, the sort where the cost doesn’t matter, and everyone gets served.
100 dollars won’t cover the readiness costs to be able to respond let alone the cost of the service.
Shouldn’t ambulance rides be part of the services we get when we pay our taxes to towns/counties/states? They don’t charge to bring out all those fire trucks whenever they have to put out a fire and the police don’t charge if they have to come out. Why is EMS a separate thing that we have to pay for but other emergency services are “free?”
Our healthcare system is criminal. Paying for life-saving services is insane.
Maybe we could make something like ambulance rides for people in health emergencies not something that the free market has to solve with its directive of maximizing profits?
100$ for the ride and 2,400$ to strap you down to the bed and keep the doors shut.
If ambulances were only $100 I’d still be alive today.
The US pays me .655 cents per mile driven in my vehicle for company purposes. That seems fair to me.
(maybe cap that for super rural areas? I wouldn’t know that distance and if an ambulance even gets called at 100 miles out (still less than $100 – $65.50))
While I agree ambulances should be free it could cause abuse of an already over burdened system. The amount of BS calls of pts who do not need to go by ambulance is already staggering. Either give EMS providers more autonomy to make decisions of whether or not to transport someone or bill the shit out of people who call for every stubbed toe.
Everywhere I’ve ever lived in the US, the ambulances are part of the fire department, which is paid for by my property taxes. When I called the fire department and they sent three trucks and a battalion chief for a malfunctioning smoke detector, there was no charge. Why do we get charged for the ambulance ride if they’re part of the fire department that’s paid for by my taxes? Serious question.
In my small town It cost $1350.00 for a 2.5 mile ambulance ride to go from the hospital to the airport. The airplane ride was $62k. The 8 mile ambulance ride at the other end was $3500.
Luckily I’m on that socialist Medicare, otherwise I would have declared bankruptcy. It good to have great health insurance
Ambulance rides are free in Japan. Why can’t the richest country in the world figure this out?
“Taxi!!!!”
No more private hospitals. America already has the most expensive medical system. It goes to show what happens when a corporation buys a politician. We all suffer.
Do you have to pay for the firefighters to save your ass in a fire or pull you out of a burning car? I thought that was ridiculous but typing it out.. idk lol
“It feels bad to feel like you are getting ripped off by these people that are supposed to be proving you lifesaving services,”
How is this being ripped off? If the patient doesn’t need emergency care, don’t call an ambulance. It’s not a taxi. Medics are not Uber drivers.
People showed up within a few minutes and provided emergency medical care.
If we are not going to have universal healthcare, an ambulance service shouldn’t be the ones getting shafted.
The amount of commenters in here who think ambulances provide nothing but a ride is staggering, hilarious, and also sad.
I’ve seen my dad in a state of emergency refuse an ambulance ride and drive himself to the hospital 100% against recommendation from the paramedics. Americans should not have to choose between death, and life with financial destruction.
Why are people trying to solve problems backwards these days?
Student loans: Let’s forgive the debt instead of fixing the issue.
Ambulance costs: Let’s make a law to make the cost so low instead of increasing municipal taxes or furthuring public healthcare.
My experience riding in an ambulance for about ten miles was it felt as bumpy as riding in the back of a pickup truck. Wouldn’t you think there would be a padded bed or air cushion or decent shocks on the vehicle? $800. A limo woulda been cheaper but there was the potential need for an EMT. Oh that….
Good. Its an eye opener to get a 2k ambulance ride that lasted all of 10 minutes.