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We don't call 911
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this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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This reminded me, does anyone know what the profit margin on ambulance trips are? They must surely be outrageous, but to what degree?
Many years ago I was run over by a car, the charge of the ambulance was $800 USD, the total hospital bill for the 4 hours I was in "observation" was $28,000. I did not have medical insurance at that time.
How is that possible. A single accident and you're in debt for life ?
Man people always complain about this but it's super easy to get out of these without paying nearly as much.
Call and ask for an itemized bill.
Get bill 3 months later and see the price hasn't changed
Call and ask about a payment plan
3b. Make less than $10k a year so you qualify
4b. Go back and get health insurance that doesn't have a $12k deductible
4c. Go back and get health insurance that has a low deductible and actually covers at least half of your treatment
It's really that easy.
ngl
Because the health insurance/medical industry situation in America is objectively criminal.
This is why the quality of health insurance offered by a potential employer is such a huge consideration when looking for work in this country, sometimes outweighing prospects of salary or hourly pay. With even moderately decent coverage a bad accident can ruin your life financially.
That is completely crazy. I am so glad to be far from this madness. I feel for the people stuck in it. Hopefully this changes soon
Depends on aspect. Its actually not cheap to run an ambulence with the required personel and materials swapped often on call. I believe the main reason why its expemsive is because more often then not, the ambulence isnt paid for so said company takes a loss.
ambulence costs are also tied down by law in some cities, so for those specific cities, its the city making the cost, not the company.
For Europe, the bulk of the cost is covered by theor health care, so their out of pocket cost is low. In the U.S, its broken because insurance often denies the ride depending on insurance company and documentation.
If we assume an ambulance+equipment costs $500k and has to be replaced every 5 years, requires 4 personnel around the clock to operate with the cost of employing one being $50/h, one ambulance getting an average of 4 calls per day and per call average costs of gas, medicine and other disposable stuff being $300 we are looking at about per ride cost of $1500 so if one ambulance ride costs 12k as per the other comment, we are looking at a profit margin of 87.5% even with these very likely way too high cost estimations.
Where are you getting $50/hr? EMTs in the US make taco bell wages. They literally save lives, you can't be more valuable than that, and yet our wonderful corporations love to exploit the shit out of people who care...
The general state of things is so goddamn disgusting.