Woman injured in subway accident begs to not have ambulance out of fear of costs - Sensationalist Headlines

For example, I went to the hospital for chest pains(Via Uber because I knew an ambulance would be infeasible), and they charged me $1600 for some morphine and saline solution. This is with health insurance. If I didn't have health insurance, I would be out over $25,000. This shit is fucked, yo.

Depends on where you live. Here in Westchester, New York it's $11. In NYC it's a little higher and in the northern part of the state it's a little lower. By 2021 it's supposed to be $15 everywhere in the state.

Existing in the fucking country is a scam unless you're rich.

Dystopian writers could literally write about the US directly and change a few titles without literally having to change anything else, the book would probably be unpopular because it would be too depressing. As someone mentioned in a blog article, this place is not even shit in an exciting or interesting way, you don't even have enough room to be morbidly amused.

It was really brought into perspective for me a month or so ago how good we have it here in Canada compared to the States. My dad ended up in the hospital for nearly two weeks after a heart attack and cardiac arrest and the final bill was $45 for the ambulance to transfer him from his receiving hospital to a specialized cardiac institute and even that small bill was fully covered by the province because it was deemed necessary for his medical treatment. Given the situation my family was in, a bill like the one discussed in the article would've been horrific.

A master class in trying to dodge a bullet and falling down a coal mine instead, everyone.

Ohey, howdy across the county border in Putnam. Yeah, in NYC it's $13, $12 for smaller businessest, $11 for Westchester and Long Island, then the rest of the state deals with $10.70. My coworker is panicking because we heard a rumor that our new bosses would be dropping us down to minimum wage, and she absolutely can not afford that.

health care in america is a private business, everyone involved is in it to make money. its disgusting that corporate interest is held at a higher degree than the happiness of the people.

The love of money is the root of all evil -Bible

Healthcare as a business is immoral.

I make around 12.50 an hour, but in my area rent is around 900 to 1200 dollars a month meaning I can't afford it at all.

why $1200-$1900 for an ambulance? They aren't free here either, but they only cost $350 + 50c per kilometre.

Yeah, I mean at the end of the day it's a (stocked with equipment) fucking van

That's still fucking expensive, over here it's 90% cheaper.

Negotiated rates with insurance companies, medicare and such. Say it costs $100 for an ambulance journey, for the sake of quick mental maths. The insurance companies all then say "Right, we are willing to pay 30% of that as our price, because of the volume of sales we will bring. Take it or leave it - think people will pay out of pocket?" Medicare and such then argue "Right, we will do 25% of that price". So, to make sure you get at least the $100, you have to price it as $400 or so. Then you factor in the uninsured, who may or may not pay, which is costly to chase up and you might end up reclaiming pennies on the dollar by reselling their unpaid debt. That raises price for everyone else. Not that I agree with the whole system, it is broken and rotten to the core, but that's how the prices escalate.

The cost of an ambulance isn't that much lower here, average cost for a ride is above $1200 but we have ambulance membership that for about $100 a year covers you fully for any ambulance costs. Is that just not a thing in the US?

This is the basic guide to conservative spending policies. Touting financial responsibility as an excuse to starve essential services of funding while spending insane amounts on absolutely nothing of value. It only takes a brief glance to see that's exactly what's happening in the UK too. I can't even tell if it's incompetence or part of some backroom plan.

pfft i hope public healthcare gets abolished in every country, it's communism anyway

What the hell is that calculation? If Medicare and the insurance take care of 55% of the price, then what's left to pay is 45$, not a flipping 400$! Or are you saying that having insurance somehow increases the price for the patient?

I've broken more bones then I can remember. I've never paid a single cent for any operations etc. The one time I had to pay out of pocket was when I was abroad. Broken my wrist and the total cost was ±€800, got everything back from my insurer (including the cab ride). I don't understand how you can get into financial ruin from a simple injury. It's like a 3rd world country.

And it's what my mother is going to have to do as well. She got super ill in 2011 and almost died, and she had to have constant IVs, a cleanup person pretty much just constantly on hand due to how much she was vomiting, and she ended up with a 52 thousand dollar bill in the end. But the true god damn kicker on that? My mother and alive-at-the-time father both had medical insurance for years and years that they where paying onto, for 30 years even in my mothers case, and the motherfuckers only covered for 25 dollars. No, not 25 thousand, or 25 hundred, just 25 dollars straight up.

Actually that's not far from the truth, a lot of places will charge you less if you offer to pay for it yourself instead of going through insurance, because insurance takes a lot more time and money to process or something like that. I think this might be illegal in some places though.

Even worse, medical help is the leading cause of bankruptcy in America when not even considering how many people don't seek help for that fear being realized.

this is working as intended I see, that's the whole "they can shop around" argument I hear from those bootstrappers

Clearly everything is fine, every American has ~access~ to healthcare.

Every time I hear about stuff like this I wonder why so many friends want to move to the US

Yikes. I went to the hospital last year with chest pains; they performed an ECG and gave me an X-ray, found nothing was wrong and sent me home with some painkillers. Didn't cost me a dime, all I had to do was give them my name.

I swear after we get this government unfucked, the next thing we need to unfuck is the healthcare system. As it is right now I basically follow the 'I ain't dead yet' plan.

I'm working $19 40h weeks and after taxes and shit it would take me 2 full weeks to get just over the minimum, and I'd still have to pay rent which in the minimum cost of that ride alone

This is the US's strategy to achieve the shorter wait times they like to brag about.