just realized how wild it is you can be liable for the cost of an ambulance somebody else calls for you

Like you're presumably unconscious and at no point ever consent to be liable for the cost, and yet people get billed. It's like if someone just came and did a bunch of work on your house when you were asleep and then sent you a bill.

Like, just wack. It's like if you passed out in Walmart and an employee put a cell phone in your pocket, took your money, then gave you a receipt, and people were like "hmm yes that's legit"

America must be destroyed

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Here's another fun one: if you're staying in a hospital, a random doctor walking around can just pop into your room, check whatever things there are attached to you, ask a couple questions, then bill you for it.
- $30 - Nurse made offer to patient to hold their newborn, patient was asleep
  
  none of the 30$ go to the nurse
- They can also perform pelvic exams on you while you're unconscious
I'm gonna bring this up next time someone tells me that voluntary exchange is the basis of capitalism
It's free in my country. The same with the medical care you receive: is free.
- It is wild how countries less powerful and substantially poorer than the US can afford this apparently onerous cost. A mystery that will never be solved
  
  Well, my country is not exactly poor. We just have a huge innequality.
  Anyway, have you ever tried to listen to the people you guys label as communists in US? Turns out that most of them are not communists at all! They are just fighting for their right to have access to good healthcare, good educational system and good job regulamentations.
  Surely there is a communist here and there, but most of the people that is labeled as communist is not communist! They just are tired to live in a place where profit is prioritized over people
- It's not free in Canada, which is always a fun thing to explain. A little over $100. Unless you're being transported between facilities, then it's free (to the patient).
  
  It was $5000 for me and the ride was like 2 miles.
  I was also unconscious and they maxed out my credit card and just left me in a hallway. Had to walk myself out. Then they billed me another $5000 for "diagnosis and saline"
  It was a very rural hospital and the ambulance was privately run.
  
  Oh man what I would give for an ambulance to only cost $100
  
  My brother in laws bill was nearly 300 bucks for the ambulance, and i'm still not sure how a 15 minute ride cost that much in 2005.
- brag aboutit more!
The US is insane. One can get hit while walking, as a pedestrian, and if they flee and aren't identified all of the costs related to that fall on the victim and their health insurance.
They send you a bill if the ambulance ride was deemed non-critical, and it's NEVER critical enough to count.
- Soulless health insurance person: "How do we know when it's critical? Easy. They get a helivac. Which we also deny. Too expensive. Should've called us ahead for authorization. Which we would deny, of course. Get an uber. Don't tip the driver though. We don't reimburse.
  You know, really, all things considered, it would probably be best if you just... sorta, you know, died. Really makes things easier for everyone involved."
  
  Please keep paying insurance though
Here’s another one. An involuntary 72 hour psychiatric hold costs, on average, over $2,000 without insurance. And it can go a lot higher than that depending on where you go.
- i don't understand how anyone could not think about that and think "wow, that in and of itself must be incredibly psychologically traumatic" like jfc
  America must be destroyed
  
  Getting the bill is one thing. Getting it sent to collections and getting the harassing phone calls is another.
  
  Amerikkkan psychiatric/psychological “healthcare” isn’t about helping people, it’s about punishing them for “acting out”
- Technically, that's a "voluntary" commitment, with the cops "escorting" you to the facility. Medical facilities cannot actually compel you to pay such involuntary "services" unless you allow it. Of course, it's pretty easy to inadvertantly "allow" it...
  If you are ever in a situation where you're going to be held for observation, calmly and politely inform everyone who approaches you that you are being held against your will; that you will not physically resist, but you do not consent and will not otherwise cooperate with any treatment. If they ask you to get up on the bed for an examination, "You'll need to make that an order, not a question."
  Definitely don't provide them with any billing information. Police will give it to them anyway, but that's on them, not you. Definitely don't give them any insurance information. If they already have insurance information on file and ask you to confirm, tell them that policy was canceled. If your insurance pays anything out for any part of your treatment, they will be coming after you for the rest.
  Make sure you inform your insurance carrier that you did not have any authorized treatment during the time in question, and that any billing during that time is fraudulent and shouldn't be paid. Your insurer will love to have your approval to deny a claim.
  This won't get you out of charges accrued while the ambulance and hospital are operating under presumed consent (while you are unconscious drunk, or otherwise in an altered mental state, and a reasonable person would believe you would consent to treatment if you could). But, where treatment is being forced on you by a third party, you can successfully challenge the bill.
  
  Greatest country in dah world!
- AND they drug you with shit that will give you horrid withdrawals knowing full well you probably can't afford an Rx
- $7,000 twenty years ago. And the night in the ER was another $7,000.
When I first went to a mental health urgent care, they called me an ambulance because I had a seizure the previous day. I begged them to just let me drive, but they wouldn't let me because I was in their care at the time. Now I get daily phone calls telling me to pay up
- i had over $6000 in medical bills from a car crash and i never paid a dime of it I don't really remember them coming after me much and within a year they stopped calling at all
  as far as i know it was just wiped out but who knows
insane that private ambulance companies are a thing. They should all be state-run like all other emergency services.
- They should all be state-run like all other ~~emergency~~ services.
When I was young and naive I called an ambulance for my mom who was having chest pains and I think she's still paying for it. Absolutely batshit that onlookers need to make split second judgement calls about a potentially dying persons financials.
- In Poland, even after 35 years of predatory capitalism we still have at least some public healthcare and calling up ambulance is free (and even is somebody calls it without any reason the fine is 1500 PLN - around 385 dollars, same with police and firefighters). USA is truly a barbarous state.
- I think she's still paying for it
  that's fucked, jesus
  do you know how much she might owe on it? I'm financially fucked on the regular, but maybe we could start a gofundme or something to free your mother of this burden? idk
  
  I think its like 5 thousand that she's constantly paying off but somehow never gets lower. Hopefully one day I'll make enough to just pay it off but that probably won't be anytime soon.
just realized how wild it is you can be liable for the cost of an ambulance
I was brought to the hospital by the police en route to jail and the hospital sent me a bill for $3,000. There no was no treatment of any kind as far as I can remember lol I told them to get fucked they’ll never get that money from me
i didnt know this somehow, good to know, getting "call an uber' tattooed on my 4head
Thats why more and more people take uber and lyft over an ambulance
i crashed my car when i was young and dumb, and my friends being good people called the ambulance.
that little ambulance ride ended up costing something like $800 to go like 2 miles.. the charge was so high because my friends didn't know where we were and the ambulance drove around for almost 2 hours looking for us apparently
I read a story where an elderly dementia patient died during a helicopter ambulance ride that cost more than value of the family home. The craziest part is that insurance would have paid a fraction of the price, but the ambulance service had no reason to negotiate with an estate that had an asset to take.
Normally I wouldn't feel too bad about someone not getting their inheritance, but the daughter had moved in to keep her mom from going to a nursing home.
Germany:
If you have no healthcare due to stupidity or whatever reason, medical personal will help you, but you will will be forced to ensure yourself back for all the time you weren't ensured. even if you pay cash, you can not opt out on some form of health ensurance. (there are different models)
one day in hospital is 10 euros, capped at 22o euros.

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