> Typically an ems crew will be two paramedics. Average paramedic wage is about $23/hr.
Paramedics and EMTs aren't the same thing. Private ambulance crews running "dual ALS (advanced life support, i.e. paramedics)" are _exceptionally rare_. Normal staffing is Paramedic and EMT, and most often there are crews that are dual EMT.
Average EMT wage is actually about $18/hr (and in much of the south you can be looking at $15-16/hr).
However where wages do go up, but not in a good way, is overtime. The agency I worked would happily schedule you for 36 or 48 hour _shifts_ and had no weekly hour limit beyond "You must take an 8 hour break after 60 hours of shift", I kid you not - and many people will regularly work 72-96 hour weeks.
The big thing is that private EMS writes off a lot of bills and pushes the balance on everyone else. The holy grail for private EMS agencies is "inter facility -out- of a hospital", as oftentimes the hospital pays the ambulance bill and charges the patient.
You also have to be careful looking at FD provided _transport_ as billing for this is often subsidized by property taxes. There are FDs who will charge for treatment and for transport, for transport only (not for treatment), or for neither (my FD did not charge - but there were also differing policies on when we transported, not by default, so you had people literally - and understandably - peeking out their window to see if it was a red FD ambulance/medic unit outside, or a white private ambulance).
Even above and beyond that, there are a LOT of disposable costs you never recoup. Bedding, blankets, gloves, etc.
> This is a short trip in an automobile, essentially a fancy uber ride.
That is a little flippant, as you acknowledge... good way to offend any paramedic or EMT. I've delivered babies en route to a hospital, including breeches. CPR. Emergency airways.
> A new, fully equipped ambulance is about $150k.
Not any more. Thanks, private equity. You can easily be looking at $400K. And they are vehicles that are driven hard, and cold, and maintenance sucks as a result. No warm up times for engines. Private ambulance, it's common to see rigs with 300,000+ miles on them.
> Then you have liability, both for the vehicle and for the medical treatment; that's about $12k per year.
Not for the medical treatment, no. You can get insurance privately as a paramedic but those policies are generally excess/umbrella style or are specifically "occasional only". The last private agency I worked at with a dozen paramedics and 50+ EMTs had at least mid 6 digit insurance bill.
> Throw in money for gas and wear and tear, which should be quite comparable to other automobiles
For a vehicle that can weigh 10,000lb+, that gets started and stopped often 30 times a day, a lot of time driven "foot to the floor" with an attitude of "it's got to get where it needs to go"? No, although one of the first thing any halfway decent sized agency quickly learns to build out is its own full shop and multiple mechanics (my friend is the Head Mechanic at a local county fire agency and oversees 8 FT mechanics and an auto electrician).
This jumped around a lot, I apologize, and I don't mean to shout you down, at all, but, lest you think I'm defending this state of affairs, I am not, in no way, shape or form.