Just walk it off

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Someone near us put up a large banner on their front lawn stating how many people go bankrupt from medical debt every day. To me, it's super depressing because the only way I see someone doing that is if it happened to them or a family member.

We are a nation that has everything we could ever need to fix these issues and more, yet we choose not to. This country is just sad...

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In my state SAR is free unless the person was doing something really dumb. Eg. Avalanche victim = free. Vs. Hypothermia evac from winter hiking without a coat = ~$2k total.

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$2000?!?! I got charged $3000 for a 15-minute EMS transport. They didn't even perform any medical care.

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My Pa, in his youth, broke his back after hitting a railroad crossing at 90+ miles an hour. The mercy flight and the ambulance arrived at the same time. They asked which he wanted and he asked which is cheaper.

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Bullshit. I got an ambulance ride 10 years ago, 15 minutes and they billed me $2,200.

Helicopter would be way more expensive.

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It depends. Some state police or local government have S&R helicopters for use. They're typically cheaper by an order of magnitude than a commercial medivac heli. Or so I was advised by a DPS officer.

Zagorath

'No Way to Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens

ERROR: Earth.exe has crashed

I mean, if you don't own property, then just get the treatments and refuse to pay. What are they gonna do, seize your property?

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This is what I did for my cancer, but stupidly paid $50 a month for the other bill. Kept all my credit cards up to date and never paid a cent on the big bill. 7 years later poof. 3 years after that I have near perfect credit. Fuck these assholes.

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This sounds like bullshit, and if it's true, arbitrary.

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Here’s a fun tidbit, I used to deal with ambulance billing. Most places would try to hang back on submitting their bills, because the first to submit would hit the insurance deductible, and it was unsure if that portion would be paid.

Flight services bill as quickly as possible, out of concern of hitting a billing cap, because after, say, $100,000 on a bill, some policies stop paying.

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Is this one of the comics I'm too European to understand? /s

But seriously, how fucked up is it for a sick person to ask for the costs...
America needs a revolution. Your political system is beyond repair, I'm afraid.

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You'll still get a bill for them just showing up

【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】

I've seen some of these medivac bills. You are right. They are always $200,000 or more.

States tried to regulate them, but the air ambulances argued that aviation falls under federal law, and fat fucking chance the federal government is going to regulate the price of anything.

【J】【u】【s】【t】【Z】

It is. Aviation falls under federal law.

Zement

Wait and see how they switch from "Constitution" to "Terms of Service"...

Zement

So the insurance screws you guys too? Who the fuck needs such an "insurance"?

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American here.

I was tapping my palm on the bottom of a 1 liter glass bottle of pomogranate juice to loosen the lid and it popped in my hands.

So in the rhythm of the motion I stab myself fully on my wrist with the broken bottle.

My SO calls the ambulance while I rush to the sink to see if I nicked anything. No squirting blood but I got a nice deep gash.

Medics arrive in good time and I head out. They give me the once over and wrap it up. Tell me to get stitches that day. Not life threatening.

My very next question? **So how much do I pay you guys? **

They thankfully explained that you only get charged if they give a you a ride to the hospital. So I took a taxi to the ER to get my stitches to save myself the $1k+ fee.

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You refused the ambulance. Now insurance can deny the claim as elective surgery.

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Nope. Refuse the ambulance and they leave. They never even got my name let alone insurance.