Taxi Cabs verses Ambulances

[kurumi]

"I call a cab 'cause a cab will come quicker" - Public Enemy, 911 is a Joke, from Fear of a Black Planet

[realjd]

I still say to bring back the rescue squads and just let them pick you up, place you on a stretcher and let the ER do what they are going to do anyway.  I think it is redundant that the ambulance staff tries to figure out what is wrong with you when its the ER that really treats you.  That drives insurance costs up cause they are paying for two treatments that are the same!

To me and ambulance is, and always will be to me, a taxi just like the vehicle that picks you up at the airport and drives you to your hotel.  To me they are stealing our money and should be not allowed to operate as a business!  If a cab can charge a fraction of what these idiots charge, than they can do it too!  And, yes, I am quite comfortable having a taxi cab take me to the ER if I need an emergency.   I am not like everyone else who racks up debt, I would like to pay for things as much as I can and owe nobody nothing!  If it is a choice between dying and paying thousands of dollars, I would rather pick the former no matter what I suffer.

Yep, trained paramedics totally shouldn't try defib heart attack patients. Or offer a saline IV to heat stroke patients. Or birth a baby for a mother who went into early labor.

It's not duplicating treatment like you claim. While they aren't as sophisticated as what the ER docs can do, the whole point of paramedics is to begin life saving treatment ASAP when seconds count. The fact that some people use them as a hospital taxi for non-emergencies is an unfortunate but unrelated truth.

Personally, I'd rather be in debt than dead. But I don't consider debt inherently bad like you apparently do. Taking out a mortgage for a house often makes financial sense. Low interest car loans aren't necessarily bad debt as long as you don't overspend. Debt is only bad if abused, like maxing out a high-interest credit card on toys.

[english si]

"gee, he's bleeding out.  should we put on a tourniquet?"
"nah, that's the hospital's job."

Tourniquet? What is this 1990? considered bad practise now.

My understanding, however, is that you do not obtain this access automatically--you have to do something in advance of travel (in the past, you used to have to fill out an E-111 form which you carried with you, but arrangements have changed and I am not familiar with the new ones).

It's apply for a card - I've got one, but it was so long ago I can't remember how.

Travel insurance often covers a level of overseas (non-EU) massive emergency (eg you'd need to undo surgery and be admitted) treatment.

I can fully understand why many Americans don't want socialised healthcare - it is the ultimate way to get statism ingrained into the national psyche. It was the flagship of the cradle-to-grave care of big brother Clement Attlee's government (I'm not sure they got out of the mindset of running a country that was fighting total war) with good reason - it provides that expectation of cradle-to-grave care and locks it in. Not even Thatcher-the-milk-snatcher would touch the NHS - and she stopped the giving of free milk to kids at school (earning her the nickname that makes her sound like the Grinch), defeated the militant unions, dismantled a lot of the state-owned monopolies. The NHS is practically untouchable - changing the way it is run, or decreasing the increase in budget it is an attempt at political suicide.

[hbelkins]

One big difference and the reason I'd want an ambulance if it was a true emergency: ambulances have emergency equipment and can legally run red lights and exceed the speed limit to get you to the hospital. Taxis can't. All they can do is turn their flashers on, and I have a tendency to ignore non-emergency vehicles that are trying to speed by me if they have their flashers on. Those flashers don't give you a legal right to pass illegally or expect other motorists to pull over and defer to you.

[Mdcastle]

I work at a health insurance company that you've heard of, so I see a lot of ambulance claims. My favorite is a kid that crashed his car into a tree across the street from the hospital. The ambulance went out and got him and billed us the base charge plus the minimum 1 mile loaded mile charge.

Employers don't have to offer health insurance. It's universally expected that they do, however. Under Obamacare large employers would have to or pay a fine. However the fine is less than the cost of insurance to them, so some very, very large companies are thinking about dropping coverage for their employees, paying the fine, and sending their employees to buy their own policies on the exchanges.

[roadman65]

I work at a health insurance company that you've heard of, so I see a lot of ambulance claims. My favorite is a kid that crashed his car into a tree across the street from the hospital. The ambulance went out and got him and billed us the base charge plus the minimum 1 mile loaded mile charge.

Employers don't have to offer health insurance. It's universally expected that they do, however. Under Obamacare large employers would have to or pay a fine. However the fine is less than the cost of insurance to them, so some very, very large companies are thinking about dropping coverage for their employees, paying the fine, and sending their employees to buy their own policies on the exchanges.

See that is so stupid!  Money wasted there completely!  Yeah we all know too much about the socialized healthcare that is coming.  The funny thing is that either way we get it.  Either though Obama or Romney, they both are going to make us sure that it happens.  Obama Care verses Romney Care its going to be as well as their religions as both are prominent in two faiths that are considered off key by many Americans. 

This is how the whole thing needs to be handled is address charges and services that ARE NOT NEEDED such as what ambulance companies pull on the GP.

[NE2]

Obama Care verses Romney Care its going to be as well as their religions as both are prominent in two faiths that are considered off key by many Americans.

what

[Scott5114]

I foresee nothing good coming out of this thread at this point.