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Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

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Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#101

Post by philliphaydon »

djsumdog wrote: post #99
asdfaoeu wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about Canada but in Australia the person who the ambulance is called for gets charged.

How much is an ambulance in Australia? Last time I was there, I saw a protest against the Abbot government (yea it was that long ago) because he wanted to put in a co-pay (yes, Australians don't have co-pays). In the US, with insurance, they're typically like $300.

I don’t know if it’s the same for everyone, but about 8 years ago I got gastro and thought I was dying because I was in so much pain. I was a Kiwi living in Australia l, called myself an ambulance and I don’t have Medicare so figured I had to pay the bill.

After being discharged I gave them my passport and the hospital bill was $0 while the ambulance bill was around $950 Aud.

When I moved to singapore to live I got appendicitis. I called a taxi and paid $9 to go to the hospital. Too scared to get ambulance now even if it’s covered by insurance.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#102

Post by thewhitetulip »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #48

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…

If you have something life threatening and you know it in advance, please have a look at Indian healthcare system. It will not be that costly and there are a few mind blowing hospitals who are really very damn good.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#103

Post by make3 »

throwaway0255 wrote: post #48

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 American system is so fucked up. I don't know how you can read things like that and think it's not. downvote me all you want.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#104

Post by make3 »

asdfaoeu wrote: post #93
deepsun wrote: post #69

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 Canada you get charged only if you get in the ambulance

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#105

Post by knz »

bubblethink wrote: post #65
gonyea wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s incredibly old tech and costs you maybe $5 in most countries.

I'm constantly surprised by costs for x-rays in the US too. It probably has more to do with the cost of labour, but even so, it's quite outrageous.

It's not just x-rays.

I'm currently on holiday in New Zealand and had to take my infant daughter to the urgent care. The total cost was $21 USD (including the prescription).

Back in the US it's $330 for a 15 minute appointment with her GP.

There is no way it costs $1,300/hour to run a GP clinic. Between my employer and I, the cost of family insurance is > $20,000/year and we pay the first $6,000 in expenses. That's similar to the TOTAL income tax of a median household in New Zealand - how are they providing all of the functions of government plus universal health care for the cost of just health insurance?!?

It really makes me wonder about the ROI on taxes in America.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#106

Post by averagewall »

It may be an overall improvement in efficiency, but it's not going to help patients long term. Whoever pays for the ambulances is going to eventually reduce their funding because they're being under used and revert them to the same state they were in before. If that wasn't the case, then they would have already been paying for more ambulances before Uber came along.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#107

Post by domenzain »

blhack wrote: post #82
throwaway0255 wrote: post #48

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…

There is pretty much nothing that infuriates me more than the health insurance system. Here is just one example (other than your ambulance example, which is like some trolley-car problem come real): We use "insurance" for routine medical examinations which are supposedly to be done regardless of health. We use "insurance" for YEARLY checkups. The absurdity of this is on par with insuring yourself against getting hung…

It makes good financial sense for insurers to push the insured to take preventative measures.

An insurer should provide incentive to bring a building up to code to avoid a costly fire. The option to simply raise prices accounting for the fire leaves out the business of those who cannot afford it: the people leaving in a building that's not up to code.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#108

Post by aidenn0 »

caresource_ta wrote: post #77
nvahalik wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can confirm it works fairly well for the poor. I have been registered for Medicaid the past three years of school and have not had to used it until this year. Every single time I use my insurance (CareSource) I am absolutely blown away by how painless it is. Other than presenting proof of coverage twice in a series of multiple hospital and doctor's visits I have not had to worry about insurance for a single moment. A…

Medical is a horrible situation when I've had to use it. The places that take it you pay nothing, but many places won't take it, and many GPs at places that do take it won't take new patients on it.

The dental care was also terrible: 2 places only in my city that accept it. Neither would give an appointment for a cleaning and a checkup at the same time, and I never was admitted less than 20 minutes after my appointment time.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#109

Post by djsumdog »

donatj wrote: post #37
bmelton wrote: post #7

If you don't get bogged down in details of the service, I see this as generally net good. For many, ambulance rides are prohibitively expensive, and while I certainly wouldn't be cost-conscious taking an ambulance in the event of a seizure or heart attack, for something like a broken arm, or non-life-threatening ailment, an Uber/Lyft/Cab is a good alternative to trying to drive myself. Beyond that, I'd like to see st…

Six years ago I had something similar to a stoke. I had a relative drive me from work to the ER in outer suburbs because: a) I would literally rather die than pay for an ambulance. I put my money where my mouth was on that. b) I knew from previous experience their ER was far cheaper, cleaner and quicker than the one in the cities. Maybe I am just particularly frugal but I had the presence of mind to consider costs wh…

... seriously? What is wrong with you?

If I'm having a stroke, I'm not going to care about anything except getting to the nearest emergency room as fast as possible. Minutes matter in a stroke. The faster you can get basic drugs and a CT scan, the better your chances for preventing serious damage.

I'm still in my 30s and young. Maybe when my body is older and falling apart I'd have a different opinion, but your statement feels really ludicrous and dangerous advice to me.

Re: Cities with Uber Have Lower Rates of Ambulance Usage

#110

Post by malkuth23 »

will4274 wrote: post #59
mysterypie wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> my ride to the hospital to be 30 minutes late, to refuse to turn the music down, and to tell me the credit card reader is broken As much as I'd like to stick it to taxis because of their decades of price gouging due to being granted a monopoly, I have not had many bad experiences riding a taxi. If I had to put a number on it, I'd say that less than 5% of my taxi rides were in any way unpleasant other than for the c…

Taxis are good in NYC. In Binghamton NY, they all tell you the credit card readers are broken at all times of day and insist on driving you to an ATM so they can get paid in cash. In Washington DC, if they think you're drunk, they overcharge you / don't start the meter and the dispatchers always tell you 15 minutes, but then the cabbies just grab other people and you end up needing to call the dispatcher repeatedly t…

NYC cabs are waaaay better now that ridesharing is dominating. They used to almost universally keep their doors locked and quiz you on the destination, then drive away if it was Brooklyn or somewhere they did not feel like going. They are actually happy to get a fare now, so they do not treat the customer like crap anymore.
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