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Emergency SOS via satellite

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Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#331

Post by googlryas »

yurishimo wrote: post #296
tyingq wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>At some point iPhone and Apple Watch will probably be marketed as the devices you need if you don't wish to die early. Or you'll have to turn over your data to get the reasonable health insurance rates and not fall in the risky rate bucket.

God forbid the US become a civilized nation and offer a real competitive national healthcare options. I live in one of the more expensive European nations when it comes to healthcare. €100~/mo with a €400~ deductible per year. Worst case scenario, I spend €1600/yr on healthcare.

How much do you pay when you factor in the taxes you also pay into the system?

If one gym had a yearly fee of $40 and then cost $1 every time you went, and another gym had a $8 yearly fee and cost $15 everytime you went, it wouldn't make sense to compare them merely on the per-visit costs.

Just to short circuit, I'm not trying to defend the American healthcare system. American healthcare is horrible on average compared to the average of other rich nations.

Also, a final note, but even if you have cheap out of pocket expenses, you aren't getting good value for your money if you don't visit a doctor for almost a decade. (Yes, I did e-stalk you for 60s to try to see what country to figure out average tax burden for healthvare, and ran across that fact on your intermittent fasting post)

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#332

Post by macNchz »

dave78 wrote: post #304
ingalls wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The next couple years will give us more concrete numbers, but based on my personal experience, I doubt this will change call volume significantly. We're mostly seeing dramatically increased call volume due to more people being involved in backcountry recreation and less so due to increased comms coverage through cell or satellite devices. While there is the argument that these devices give increased peace of mind tha…

> Subjects needing rescue are still usually hesitant to call for rescue and usually try to self extricate Someone with the knowledge and foresight to bring along a Garmin or PLB or something probably has a decent understanding of what it means to use it - waking people up and deploying expensive assets - and because of that I can see why they'd probably hesitate (it surely would trigger my "I don't want to be a bothe…

That decision making process is a key part of what's taught in a wilderness medicine course: assessing the situation at hand and deciding whether it's necessary to evacuate for a higher level of care, and if so, whether you need a rapid evac like a helicopter, or can walk or be carried out with fewer resources. https://blog.nols.edu/2018/02/20/stay-or-go-infographic

I do tend to agree that this has a pretty good chance of creating more nuisance calls from people who are not in actual danger...I read the New York forest rangers reports now and then, and a big portion of the rescues involve clueless people who set off alone with no map, an hour before sunset in October wearing a tshirt and shorts.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#333

Post by GoldenRacer »

noahjk wrote: post #239
Johnny555 wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does InReach require a monthly cost? Yeah, the cheapest plan is $14.95/mo ($11.95/mo if you pay for 12 months) and includes 10 "free" text's, $0.50/text after that. I wish they had a non-cost plan (or maybe $10/year) plus $5/text or something like that for use in an emergency. I have an InReach, but haven't used it for an emergency (yet), I've sent a few texts to friends/family while outside of cellular coverage sinc…

I like the way Fi does it, where service can be paused for 90 days at a time. Just used it on vacation recently after having it paused for a couple years and it was seamless. I think I'll end up paying around $30 for the trip. It's a nice balance imo

The $15 a month for the Garmin in reach is a month to month plan. You can get it for a single trip then let it expire for years before getting another month for your next trip. If you buy a 1 year subscription it ends up going down to $12/month so if you're using it >=10 months a year, it's cheaper to commit to that but for most people, month to month where you can pause whenever you aren't using it is a good option.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#334

Post by paranoidrobot »

googlryas wrote: post #331
yurishimo wrote: post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

God forbid the US become a civilized nation and offer a real competitive national healthcare options. I live in one of the more expensive European nations when it comes to healthcare. €100~/mo with a €400~ deductible per year. Worst case scenario, I spend €1600/yr on healthcare.

How much do you pay when you factor in the taxes you also pay into the system? If one gym had a yearly fee of $40 and then cost $1 every time you went, and another gym had a $8 yearly fee and cost $15 everytime you went, it wouldn't make sense to compare them merely on the per-visit costs. Just to short circuit, I'm not trying to defend the American healthcare system. American healthcare is horrible on average compar…

In general, the US pays more, and has less effective healthcare than countries with universal/single-payer systems[1][2][3].

There's plenty of reasons for that.

[1] https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effectiv...

[2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-...

[3] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#336

Post by lxgr »

Johnny555 wrote: post #329
chrisshroba wrote: post #284

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, if we conservatively say 1% of InReach users will need to send an SOS message, then looking at the math: Today, 100 InReach subscribers nets Garmin around $144/yr * 100 people = $14,400 If the InReach were free except for when activating the SOS, the SOS would have to cost $14,000 to make that same revenue from the same number of users. This would surely lead to more deaths due to folks waiting way longer to se…

They're going to lose the people like me anyway when phones can send a SOS by satellite, so their revenue from me will either go to $0 and I'll sell my InReach on eBay, or they can get some small amount of revenue (enough to cover the administrative costs of registering the device) from me.

Good point – now that the iPhone has satellite SOS, the market has changed, and the pure SOS use case has become a lot less compelling.

Some users still prefer a standalone device, want P2P messaging functionality (until Apple adds that, too), or need coverage beyond Globalstar – I'd be curious to see how much of the market that is, in the end.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#337

Post by googlryas »

paranoidrobot wrote: post #334
googlryas wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much do you pay when you factor in the taxes you also pay into the system? If one gym had a yearly fee of $40 and then cost $1 every time you went, and another gym had a $8 yearly fee and cost $15 everytime you went, it wouldn't make sense to compare them merely on the per-visit costs. Just to short circuit, I'm not trying to defend the American healthcare system. American healthcare is horrible on average compar…

In general, the US pays more, and has less effective healthcare than countries with universal/single-payer systems[1][2][3]. There's plenty of reasons for that. [1] https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effectiv... [2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-... [3] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...

I agree, but that doesn't mean OPs overall burden is capped at 1600 eur/year

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#338

Post by paranoidrobot »

googlryas wrote: post #337
paranoidrobot wrote: post #334

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In general, the US pays more, and has less effective healthcare than countries with universal/single-payer systems[1][2][3]. There's plenty of reasons for that. [1] https://grattan.edu.au/news/more-expensive-but-less-effectiv... [2] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/universal-health-... [3] https://www.commonwealthfund.org/publications/issue-briefs/2...

I agree, but that doesn't mean OPs overall burden is capped at 1600 eur/year

These studies are using total spend - inclusive of taxation and direct payments.

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#339

Post by dagmx »

robbiep wrote: post #319
FireBeyond wrote: post #308

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a-fib detection As a paramedic, not a physician, atrial fibrillation is not a life threatening event. Many people happily live with it for decades, unmedicated. It is more problematic if you are diabetic or hypertensive, but still not an acute medical event.

As a doctor, the proliferation of apple (and other) watch ECGs has done nothing positive but lead to a massive proliferation of severe health anxiety. Go take a look at /r/askdocs for anyone curious - dozens of apple and Samsung ECG questions, people sure they’re about to die. They have nothing. I remain entirely unconvinced that putting ‘more’ health information at increased temporal frequency to consumers leads to…

How do you reconcile your views on “nothing positive” when there are multiple reported accounts of it leading to early diagnosis events for serious issues?

Re: Emergency SOS via satellite

#340

Post by rcurry »

error503 wrote: post #330
dave78 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depending on the location, perhaps getting your amateur radio license and a radio with APRS on it might help fill in some of the coverage gaps. I've heard (though cannot confirm personally) that there is often APRS coverage in remote areas that are otherwise not served by cellular.

It depends a lot on the terrain and specific area whether a typical VHF/UHF ham radio will work. The range is much longer than cellular, but it is quite LOS, and repeater/digipeater sites with good coverage tend to be at established antenna sites for commercical broadcast or telecom. There'll be some more remote sites of course, but infrastructure and LOS is still more or less required. With many popular recreation a…

This. I’ve been wilderness backpacking for a long time and still carry a 2m radio just for fun, but the usefulness is limited in a lot of places. If you’re climbing up a mountain in NH you can pretty much hit a repeater from anywhere, but if you’re trekking around in Big Bend State Park in Texas you can forget it. Satellite communication is much better and if you can’t afford a few hundred bucks for some kind of satcom then you probably shouldn’t be going out too deep into some of these places.
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