91–100 of 305 posts
How is Uber any different than taking a taxi to the hospital?
You can call an uber (or lyft) for your destination, with a few finger taps.
(*And the driver will know who they are looking for visually, as well.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How does your solution solve the problem?
It adds one crucial feature every healthy, functioning market needs: honest feedback. Right now nobody , and I mean literally nobody, makes rational economic decisions for medicine in the US. Neither the hospital, doctor, administrator, insurance company, or patient really has any real idea 1) the cost of the health care being provided 2) the amounts being charged or 3) the dollar amount of benefit gained by the pati…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crazy. Very recently I saw a guy get knocked out cold on his rollerblades and we called an ambulance. The question of cost never crossed my mind and I'm not sure I would ever want to make the utilitarian calculus: Am I helping this man or am I bankrupting him? IIRC it's $82 or something like that in Vancouver BC Canada.
Could he just said "I didn't call for ambulance, charge the guy who did"?
I injured myself and needed to go to the ER. The injury wasn't life threatening, but I definitely needed to go to the hospital immediately. I called an Uber. I don't have the time or expertise to do the months of legalese and calculus it would take me to understand my insurance policy, so I have no idea how much an ambulance ride would have cost me. $0? $400? $15000? None of those numbers would surprise me. As best I…
Crazy. Very recently I saw a guy get knocked out cold on his rollerblades and we called an ambulance. The question of cost never crossed my mind and I'm not sure I would ever want to make the utilitarian calculus: Am I helping this man or am I bankrupting him? IIRC it's $82 or something like that in Vancouver BC Canada.
Coming from a country where ambulance usage is free for citizens, it would be interesting to see the stats in Uber cities. The only reason not to call an ambulance here is if you feel it would be unethical (e.g. if you broke your arm and your partner could drive you). EDIT: That is, I imagine you might be able to see whether Uber provides a better alternative than the local cabs. This still holds in US cities though,…
In most places in the US, the local cab companies are terrible. They might answer the phone, they might show up, and they might try to scam you. Imagine you call a taxicab for a medical emergency, and they never show up, or only after an hour. Uber and Lyft are extremely popular because the apps always tell you if a driver will come, the drivers almost always arrive very quickly, and the price is set in advance. I'd…
In the case of taxi dispatch, a car may never show up, and you won't know until you get tired of waiting, and there are no consequences for the taxi company or driver if they do this. Pre-Uber, in SF, the normal quoted wait from a taxi dispatcher was on the order of 20 minutes, which if anything was usually understated. If you're in a lot of pain you probably don't want to wait that long.
I would probably still call an ambulance for something I thought might be life-threatening, but for anything else I'd take a Lyft.
I injured myself and needed to go to the ER. The injury wasn't life threatening, but I definitely needed to go to the hospital immediately. I called an Uber. I don't have the time or expertise to do the months of legalese and calculus it would take me to understand my insurance policy, so I have no idea how much an ambulance ride would have cost me. $0? $400? $15000? None of those numbers would surprise me. As best I…
It was probably the more socially responsible option all things considered. I didn't require urgent medical care, so taking Uber helped ensure those resources where free to those whom might have (though this thought didn't cross my mind at the time).
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crazy. Very recently I saw a guy get knocked out cold on his rollerblades and we called an ambulance. The question of cost never crossed my mind and I'm not sure I would ever want to make the utilitarian calculus: Am I helping this man or am I bankrupting him? IIRC it's $82 or something like that in Vancouver BC Canada.
Could he just said "I didn't call for ambulance, charge the guy who did"?
I injured myself and needed to go to the ER. The injury wasn't life threatening, but I definitely needed to go to the hospital immediately. I called an Uber. I don't have the time or expertise to do the months of legalese and calculus it would take me to understand my insurance policy, so I have no idea how much an ambulance ride would have cost me. $0? $400? $15000? None of those numbers would surprise me. As best I…
The system works fairly well if you are poor too. I know several people who have walked into and out of the hospital without paying a dime. It really seems like the middle class gets the raw end of the deal.
Extremely poor people may not pay for care, but be assured that in America, they get no where near the same level of care.
And if you're poor and have cancer? Most other western countries will give you a chance.
There is a much deeper problem relating directly to this topic. Transportation. Access to real transpiration is THE BIGGEST FACTOR in escaping poverty.
Uber isn't public transportation. A train is about $2 ~ $3 in most cities. In an Uber that would be a $10 ~ $20 ride. Multiply that by 7 days a week to and from work, and there simply is no comparison. Many cities have discounted fare cards for the poor as well. The structure of American cities hurts the poor.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could he just said "I didn't call for ambulance, charge the guy who did"?
I don't know about Canada but in Australia the person who the ambulance is called for gets charged.
In the US, with insurance, they're typically like $300.
Coming from a country where ambulance usage is free for citizens, it would be interesting to see the stats in Uber cities. The only reason not to call an ambulance here is if you feel it would be unethical (e.g. if you broke your arm and your partner could drive you). EDIT: That is, I imagine you might be able to see whether Uber provides a better alternative than the local cabs. This still holds in US cities though,…
I imagine, maybe, there are keywords or phrases that result in instant dispatch but the default behaviour seems to be to frustrate you as much as possible to the point where you just hang up and drive yourself to the nearest hospital accident and emergency department.
This is, I suppose, a result of the service being costed and allocated to different departments who are all under pressure to manage their own budgets?
Accident and emergency departments obviously get the brunt of all this because they don't have anyone to pass the buck to.
So, yeah, maybe utilising a service such as Uber is actually going to be a way around this problem?