That's the real use of the second amendment, owning a gun with one bullet so you don't drown in medical debt.
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2026
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Happened to me recently. I was gushing blood like a B-grade 90s horror movie. I had health insurance and figured this was the exact reason I pay so much for it, so that I have it when I need it. Called for an ambulance since I couldn't stop the bleeding and didn't want my car's interior covered in blood.
Anyway, that ambulance company was out of network according to my insurance. Of course when you call for an ambulance, you have no choice in who picks you up and you have no ability to know ahead of time if it's covered or how much it will cost.
Easy to see why Americans get radicalized by this shit
Call an ambulance? Fuck that, you drive to the hospital with a ruptured appendix like a real man. That's what I did.
You joke but I’ve driven to the hospital with 2 dislocated arms because I didn’t want an ambulance bill.
I wasn't joking. 4 years ago my appendix ruptured while I was laying on the couch watching Frasier. It felt like someone popped me in the belly with a rubber band followed by the worst pain I've ever experienced. I made myself get up and go to the bathroom to look in the mirror. I was sweaty and white as a sheet. I called my brother, but he was at work and couldn't answer his phone. I couldn't think to call anyone else so I got in the car and drove the 13 blocks to the hospital.
Luckily, the VA covered the hospital bill.
An asshole literally called an ambulance for me and I told him not to. He said he was doing the right thing. I told him I was able to decide for myself if I needed an ambulance. The ambulance came and tried to tell me they weren't allowed to not take me. I told them I was calling the police for kidnapping. They didn't believe me. I called a taxi and bolted into it. Told the cabby I'd give him an extra $20 if he ignored them. Dumbasses. Fuck that guy that called an ambulance for me. Truly.
I think it was Gina Yashere (British comedian) who did the math and worked out while she was touring the US, if her leg was cut off, it would be cheaper to take a taxi to the airport, book two last minute first-class seats on British Airways (one seat for her, and one for the leg) and fly home to be treated in the UK than it would be to just go to a US hospital.
Depending on where in the US she is, it might be cheaper for her to go to Mexico.
America has medical bankruptcy at a rate seen nowhere else in the world.
Roger Marshall, a US senator (and medical Dr gynecology) sent dozens of patients (moms) to jail for debt collection as little as $100 and he will likely win reelection in Republican Kansas despite this being a front page story.
America effectively sounds more and more like a feudal state run by different landlords who in turn answer to oil barons and CEO Marquis.
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"Ambulance" doesn't even enter the conversation in my circles. It'd be like suggesting we take a private jet. "Just dying" is an equally ridiculous option. Everyone should know both basic first aid and how to steal a car
I like you. You get it
I learned this from watching their emergency services shows. The EMS asks them if they want to be taken to the hospital. They always decline.
I should be laughing at this meme as a Brazilian who inhabits a country with public healthcare with public ambulance (Sistema Único de Saúde and its SAMU, respectively), but then I check our election results from last Sunday and... Welp, good thing I'm practicing Memento Mori in a daily basis and preparing myself (spiritually, physically, mentally, socially, etc-ly...) to cemeteries (if those who'd be left with my cadaver would afford a coffin and a gravesite, it's a whole other story). Before I leave this Pale Blue Dot as a homo sapiens embodiment, maybe I'll eventually going to make a Brazilian version of this meme, with a SAMU ambulance instead of the USian one, so I become, like my therapist once recommended me, a Titanic violinist, playing as the whole ship gets swallowed by the abyss, laughing like a hyena as we all meet the cold touch...
!politicalmemes@lemmy.world
i was advised once by a nurse to call an ambulance for myself, but i was so afraid of the cost i ended up ubering to the emergency room. i was in serious pain but i didn't think i was going to die (and i wasn't), hence what may seem like a stupid choice. the hospital stay still ended up being $700 dollars after insurance.
It's not even a joke.
My father-in-law fell down a flight of stairs last week. He just laid on the floor for three hours while he and his wife argued over if they could afford the ambulance. If I hadn't found out and gone over to get him myself, I think he'd probably still be on the floor now.
It's really not. I've even taken an Uber/Lyft to the ER in an emergency before - with money I had beg friends for + a coupon. Then the absurdly high ER bills went to collections, because we didn't have the Medicaid expansion here and I'm disabled and couldn't pay them since I can't work, and now I have debt collectors hounding me all the time.
When I was a kid and my dad was real sick, my parents got sued for unpaid medical bills we couldn't afford when my dad nearly died and had to be revived and intubated and shit. They garnished my dad's already piddly wages (mom's disabled, or they would have garnished hers, too) and they had to declare bankruptcy.
This country is such a mess.
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Usually we choose the "hop in your car and drive double the speed limit there" option.
It’s messed up… healthcare should be free. No one should have to pay a fortune for emergency care.
One time I got struck by a car while on foot. It flipped me over the top and broke a few things, including cracking a vertebrae in my neck. The fucker driving probably thought they killed me because they hit the gas right afterwards and sped away.
When the ambulance came I tried to argue against getting in it. Told them I'd drive myself if I didn't feel better after a night. It's hard to argue when you're all twisted up on the ground, tho. Anyway, that EMS wasn't having any of my shit.
On the gurney I went and off to the most expensive 1 mile trip of my life.
How are you presently?
Struggling with chronic discomfort and limited mobility from crumbling disks in the lumbar region. But that's just getting older, unfortunately. The price of bipedalism, I suppose.
Thank you for asking.
A little pissy it happened so early since I'm not even 50 yet, so it feels like I got robbed of at least 10 years of my active life.
On the other hand, fair trade. I've survived quite a number of things that should have taken me out if it weren't for luck or hardiness. I bounced back from that hit and run pretty quickly. Fell a few stories out of a tree once. I've also survived a tornado that went directly over me and collapsed the building I was in. Fought a guy in jail who was about 250 lbs of pure muscle (lost that one, lol, got a trip to the hospital and concussion for my trouble), almost froze to death one night (was literally wavering back and forth between the land of eternal sleep and life before I peeled myself off the ground and stumbled my way through a snow storm for shelter) another hospital trip for trying to save one of our customers in the middle of a city wide riot and bar fight (I was in the local newspaper for that. Earned a punctured lung and some broken ribs). Accidentally released a bunch of chlorine gas into an apartment complex (I could feel the vapors on my skin when I ran in to shut everything off, shoo). A few other manglings not worth going into detail about.
Knock on wood, turns out I'm pretty hard to kill.
Anyway, long story short, I'll take a little genetic back pain in light of the tremendous luck I've had since none of my misadventures left me with any permanent damage.
Good thing, too, healthcare costs are the deadliest thing out there.
wow. I bet your friends call you "nine lives".
Ha, you'd think so, but they have some more colorful names they like to use 😂
That's cool fam, thanks for sharing.
Do not get an ambulance outside of your county of residence, Americans!! It's much more expensive than inside your county. Which is already expensive.
MOAR BOOTSTRAPS!
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