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Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

davidoks.blog

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Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#31

Post by DoesntMatter22 »

lokar wrote: post #30
DoesntMatter22 wrote: post #24

I think the answer is very simple. Regulation. If there was no regulation or very little then anyone could open up an ambulance service and the cheapest costs and the best service would win. Unfortunately that’s not the case. It’s like day care. Day care is expensive because the government mandates it to be expensive. Otherwise you’d have grandmas down your street would gladly watch your kid but it’s generally not al…

I would absolutely not tolerate and unregulated ambulance responding to my emergency.

You don’t have to. You do what you want. I’d prefer to hire a company where the workers make more money. Right now they make a pittance.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#32

Post by standardUser »

comrade1234 wrote: post #10

Check your insurance to make sure you have transport. It's the same in Switzerland - it's an extra line on your insurance. My wife and also have Rega. They can't legally call it insurance but if we get injured in, for example, the USA they will send us a private hospital jet to bring us home.

And then do what, precisely? Quit your job and find one with better insurance options?

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#33

Post by Noumenon72 »

gruez wrote: post #9

As much as I like articles that tries to use economics or finance to explain stuff, the "options" analogy is a bit hamfisted. The article starts off by noting about how ambulance is an "option" for a rescue, but even though the analogy might vaguely work, it's not really needed to answer the question. That can be answered far more simply: "medicare and insurance companies pay them too little, so they have to charge e…

"Medicare pays too little" is based on the "fee for service" model; it only makes sense if you believe the group of people who actually use the ambulance should pay its full cost.

The options model matters: if you model an ambulance ride as a roulette wheel, you only expect to pay if you get very unlucky. If you model it as an option, you expect to pay even if you never use it. The former doesn't imply "everyone else should have to pay for my bad luck"; the latter does. It's effective persuasion.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#34

Post by Aurornis »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #8
darth_avocado wrote: post #7

We’re all pretending this is an unsolvable problem when really most of the world has solved it by making ambulance (EMS) funding similar to fire and police departments. Somehow in any emergency I’ve seen, all three show up, often EMS before police or fire dept, and somehow that’s a service that has to be supplemented by insurance billings. The blog mentions it, but it’s one of those obvious things that somehow isn’t…

Very much so. We could fix this. We continue to choose not to, and will for some time into the future. Tangentially (think in systems), much of the US exists off of volunteer emergency services (fire and emt), which is rapidly evaporating. Average age of these volunteers is mid 50s. https://www.nfpa.org/news-blogs-and-articles/nfpa-journal/20... > For generations, volunteers have formed the backbone of the nation’s e…

> Eight states had fewer than three ambulances covering every 1,000 square miles of land area (the Western states of Nevada, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, New Mexico, and Idaho; and the Midwestern states of North Dakota and South Dakota).

There are some good points above, but I think this one is a distraction. Many of those states on that list have low ambulance densities because they have low population densities.

Have you ever driven through Wyoming or Montana? They have less than 10 people per square mile on average. There are a couple clusters of cities and then miles of empty land.

These statistics need to be based on cities, or at least have population density taken into account. It doesn't compute to set a threshold for ambulances per square mile when the population density differs so much from state to state.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#35

Post by charcircuit »

Avicebron wrote: post #4

> The most efficient way to fund ambulance services would simply be to pay for the option the way that options are normally paid for: with a premium, collected from everyone the service stands ready to rescue. That’s how it’s done in the rest of the rich world. Some places, like the United Kingdom or Japan, simply fund ambulance services directly out of taxes; others, like the Australian state of Victoria, sell membe…

>from everyone the service stands ready to rescue

So compelled health insurance to use an ambulance? You could just as well make it optional and charge people without the insurance the full price.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#36

Post by Hnrobert42 »

HumblyTossed wrote: post #17
darth_avocado wrote: post #7

We’re all pretending this is an unsolvable problem when really most of the world has solved it by making ambulance (EMS) funding similar to fire and police departments. Somehow in any emergency I’ve seen, all three show up, often EMS before police or fire dept, and somehow that’s a service that has to be supplemented by insurance billings. The blog mentions it, but it’s one of those obvious things that somehow isn’t…

But if we fixed it, that might help people who can't afford the ride otherwise. And we cannot have that. --- Says far too many people, always.

But do they really? Can you point a real, evil villain saying that?

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#38

Post by duskwuff »

DoesntMatter22 wrote: post #31
lokar wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would absolutely not tolerate and unregulated ambulance responding to my emergency.

You don’t have to. You do what you want. I’d prefer to hire a company where the workers make more money. Right now they make a pittance.

Someone who's having a medical emergency is certainly in no position to go comparison shopping for ambulance services.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#39

Post by groby_b »

vlian2088 wrote: post #18
darth_avocado wrote: post #7

We’re all pretending this is an unsolvable problem when really most of the world has solved it by making ambulance (EMS) funding similar to fire and police departments. Somehow in any emergency I’ve seen, all three show up, often EMS before police or fire dept, and somehow that’s a service that has to be supplemented by insurance billings. The blog mentions it, but it’s one of those obvious things that somehow isn’t…

the reverse side of that medal is that in 'most of the world' EMS quality is ass.

Haven't yet seen a developed nation do worse than the US. If you prefer to compare against developing countries only, sure, winning by lowering the bar to the ground is an option.

Re: Why American ambulance rides are so expensive

#40

Post by Avicebron »

charcircuit wrote: post #35
Avicebron wrote: post #4

> The most efficient way to fund ambulance services would simply be to pay for the option the way that options are normally paid for: with a premium, collected from everyone the service stands ready to rescue. That’s how it’s done in the rest of the rich world. Some places, like the United Kingdom or Japan, simply fund ambulance services directly out of taxes; others, like the Australian state of Victoria, sell membe…

>from everyone the service stands ready to rescue So compelled health insurance to use an ambulance? You could just as well make it optional and charge people without the insurance the full price.

So everyone's covered unless you explicitly opt-out?
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