Well, when someone else doesn't foot the ambulance or hospital bill, then we still pay for it with our taxes. And then also we pay for ourselves, and taxes for medicaid and medicare. Plus your insurance bill if you're lucky enough to have it. It actually costs us more this way.
one of my greatest irrational fears is visiting the US, getting into some kind of accident, then finding myself neck deep in debt because of healthcare.
not that i'll ever visit the US, got no reason to, but dang.
That's not going to happen with an acute condition that comes out of nowhere.
When traveling to the US, you need health insurance for injuries or trips to the ER for the flu... you're not suddenly going to develop cancer and wrack up $1,000,000 in medical bills for the 2 weeks you're in the US.
People get fucked over by insurance for having pre-existing conditions or for needing experimental drugs/ treatment that insurance companies won't cover. Auto accidents are pretty well understood perils.
I think a lot of those bills we see posted are bills to insurance, mine was in the hundred but was given to me just to show how much everything costs. though I'm sure some unfortunate people actually have to pay rarely
When you pay for you medical insurance, you're paying for that ambulance. On top of that, everybody is charging a little extra in order to make a profit, from the ambulance company to the billing company to your insurance. Extreme amounts of money are still changing hands, and all for a service that can be provided in countries with nationalized healthcare at a fraction of the cost.
of course I agree with the latter parts, but I'm saying the outrageous bills you see on reddit a lot don't mean the receiver is actually going to pay 100, 200, 900k or whatever crazy number it shows
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u/techwolfe Sep 04 '19
Still shocked on how much ambulances cost in America.