US ambulance rides are payed by the patient?

[Ludafrank]

One more good reason to have a pick-up truck. Heard many stories of ppl being in car accidents, realising they would have to take an ambulance to the hospital and saying "screw that throw me in the back of that truck."

[Bonestorm]

yes we pay for it you pay for yours too yours and everybody else's through your taxes. Ambulances rides are not free, just like everything else is not free. everything has to be paid for by somebody.

[Annoying]

If u drove urself it didnt, ambulance is a separate fee

Ambulances are covered by Medicare, and if you pay taxes, you're paying for Medicare regardless of if you use it.

[Hiricine]

Insurance covers ambulances (generally). It is billed similar to hospital billing in that in rich suburbs the charge tends to be relatively low but in places with high uninsured rates and cities the price tends to be much higher to compensate for the amount of people paying nothing.

Its another example of how educating yourself can save you a lot of money. If you understand when you have a true emergency, you can visit the most efficient level of care (minute clinic, immediate care center, doctors office, emergency room).

On another note, if you have a facebook friend who works in an ER, just ask them what percentage of ambulance rides are necessary (especially in a big city). They'll tell you that 20% is probably the top end of whats necessary.

Finally, as an FYI, private ambulances are MUCH cheaper than public ambulances, since the paramedics on them receive less than 30% of the benefits on a public and get paid about 1/2 as much. If you ever need an ambulance but have some time to wait its a perfectly viable alternative.

[breadisfunny]

hey what happened to that ambulances back tires in the second photo? us americans are getting ripped off our ambulances don't have back tires how can they go anywhere?

[Deleted]

I agree wholeheartedly. I am 42 and have NEVER used an ambulance. Why should I pay thousands over the course of those 42 years for other people to use it

Because as a human being you're expected to care about other human beings. Unlike, say... animals... or wait, even some animals care about other members of their race.
But I'll just anticipate the next argument you could make, which is that you don't care and why should you care if it doesn't benefit YOU? That's a good question.
The issue here is that we're all living in a giant mechanism and we're all wheels in it. Some big, some small. If a wheel breaks down, it might not seem like it affects you, but it does through the ripple effect. Still, you might not feel that ripple in the case of one person, 10 people or even 100. But eventually you do. And when you do and it actually does affect you, it's too late.
"why should I pay for some random person's health?" - because it's the humane thing to do and because not doing so means you don't help the person when they need it and don't stand by them when they're at their weakest... so when you will be at your weakest, nobody will stand by you either.

You might feel that being 42 and never having to use an ambulance means you never will. But it's a lie. When you'll get over 60 and the health problems will start piling up and you'll retire but the money from the pension won't be enough... then we shall speak, when you will need that ambulance ride, won't have enough money and people will treat you like you treated them, as in, not care about you.

- - - Updated - - -

The original point was, "OMG you guys pay for ambulance rides??". My point is everyone pays for ambulance rides either directly or through taxes. Sure sounds alot better to me to have the people using the service pay for it rather than everyone.

Everyone from your country pays for police and the justice system. Would you feel better if instead the police and justice system only worked for those that pay them directly so that if you didn't need them, you would not care?

The health and education of the people of a nation are just as important as security, so this comparison stands.