hope your arm heals up ok honey

ambulance bills are ridiculous, which sucks for people on my campus (being a high alcohol usage campus, a lot of kids pass out or get alcohol poisoning) and if a DR in your dorm feels you need it, theyll call the ambulance to take you to the ER, and then YOU end up paying for it :/

That has a potential for an interesting legal suit if the person in question isn't actually intoxicated pas .06...

You can always refuse an ambulance...if you are too drunk to...well...pony up the cash and learn a lesson, I say

Good to hear that your insurance is helping you out. :D

good lord woman...that sucks! when I dislocated my shoulder I just had an EMT person thing pop it back into place and lived off of vicodin..
I hope it's much better.. that really blows. Good that your insurance helps though!! Very good!

That is crazy that they were allowed to do that. As an EMT, I can say that's not in our scope of practice, and something we're not legally allowed to do! xD

well it was at a concert and they had EMT staff there. I refused to see a doctor because I wanted to get an autograph so I just played through the pain. Music often makes me do crazy things..

you should cut the arm off, the next time.. its much cheeper.. ô.O

Free if you find someone disturbed enough. O.o

THANKS OBAMA

Yes, if it wasn't for Obamacare probably not even half of this would even be covered. ;~; I also probably wouldn't be able to apply for the awesome retroactive insurance.

And here people wanted to knock Obamacare .. Silly people!

All of a sudden, i love living in Quebec, Canada... Where Healthcare is "free" O.O

Same here!
I couldn't imagine getting a bill for being in the hospital/hurting myself. ToT

it's totally surrealist

don't be so happy ;) and don't goto the states lmao!

i live in ontario, canada and went to buffalo for a concert, was pushed down a flight of stairs (14 stairs) at the show and was forced, FORCED I SAY! into a ambulance and the ER (good lord)

3 months later i get a bill saying i owe 10 grand to them (half that late charges wtf?!). HA i laughed when they wrote on it my insurance from canada wouldn't cover it.

how did it ended? ;o
did our healthcare covered it?

ended with them (US Hospital) being forced to go through my insurance to try and get the money o.o' dunno what happened after i told em to basically bugger off and go through the insurance.


all this and i argued the ENTIRE time trying to refuse medical service because i was FINE.

also, i should mention at this time i was 16 and therefore should NEVER have had the bill filed in my name in the first place since i WAS underage at the time.

427 for Mileage? The fuck O_o

they add gold in the fuel...

Yeah, and they pay the ambulance driver about $14~16 an hour.

that seems underpaid considering what they charge to say the least.

Sad thing is, it probably cost about two hundred buck in real life. That is just the markup and what-have-you.

i guess you can say it cost you...

and arm and a leg

YEAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!



sorry <_< i had to.. i do hope you get better though!

Here in Canada that would be like $0.

So I hear. XD I wish the US wasn't so shitty.

at least with that new healthcare stuff you are finaly catching up with the western world where that kind of stuf is universal :P

I think the US is on the right path to a better healthcare system. Still a ways to go but far better than letting the insurance comapanies call all the shots. Now both our countries need to curb the cost of health care itself. Perscription drugs and medical supplies should not cost an arm and a leg so-to-speak.

I wonder who actually is paying for it then. Because it sure as hell is NOT free.

This a million times.

Thanks to the lovely Obama care, even with its advantages, no one wants to hire medical personnel anymore because they're scared of how it will affect everything. Just here, they had to lay off over 100 firefighters and EMTs. So places are all understaffed, and the people there are underpaid.

Actually that makes no sence since the cost of health care (outside of what the insurance companies pays) is still high so nurses and doctors still do well regardless and hospitals still profit form the system.

As for blaming Obama for the reduction in government workers, He wanted to hire MORE firefighters and police and teachers but the Republicans would not pass that stimulus bill. So if you want to blame anyone, blame those who caused the peoblem, the Republican Senate. Republicans under Romney would also have been worse as he wanted not only to cut that work force by a major amount but also wanted to abolish minimum wage so people would be forced to work for what ever sallery range compaies set (as he admired about the japanese market where some people are working for 99 cents and hour) If you refused work you did not get welfare or unemployment.

I think every politician wants to fuck over everyone. They all lie under their noses, and change stances constantly. I hardly trust that people in power are good people. People in the medical field are scared because they don't know what this new bill will bring. If you and the other guy don't see it, that's fine. I'm IN the medical field, my mother has been a nurse for thirty years. My uncle and aunt are both paramedics, one of my cousins is a radiologist and another is an EMT/firefighter. No matter the intentions, things are not improving. At least, not medically. Hospitals here are laying off nurses and doctors and are severely understaffed and won't hire more because they're scared of what the healthcare bill will do to them. A local ambulance service just laid off a third of its workers, and the volunteer firefighters here are running out of funding. I don't know much about politics, but when I hear physicians and the actual people who run ambulances bases turn away me and several others and state their fear of things becoming worse because of this bill, and currently working nurses and doctors being overworked, all of them talking about how Obamacare they're afraid they'll lose business because Obamacare, it's hard to actually believe it's helping.

That's just ignorance, actually both the UK and Canada spend less per capita than the US on healthcare, and that was BEFORE Obamacare. The numbers don't lie, Obamacare is not hurting this country at all. I have no idea what you are talking about with the layoffs. I live in MA which was the testing-ground for many of these laws years beforehand and we're doing quite well.

I live in Illinois, and it's actually happening. Sorry that actual facts are ignorance?

I mean, it's probably not happening for the reasons that you think.

As I said to Wokkie, when people in charge of the hospitals and ambulance services state they won't hire because fear of the healthcare bill, it's kind of hard to overlook that. I'm not saying the bill itself is bad, I don't know enough about it. I'm saying right now everyone is so afraid of it, it's screwing everyone over.

IF what you are saying is true then it is ignorance on their part fearing something that does not affect them. I havn't heard anyting from the media conserning this issue outside of right wingnut propoganda spewed by Faux News way back before ObamaCare was passed. The healthcare providers are not affected by ObamaCare only the insureance comapanies paying them. What they may be fearing is a possible future investigation of the COST of healthcare but that has nothing to do with ObamaCare.

I think they're afraid because insurance already isn't paying them enough. One hospital near me was shut down about a year ago because they weren't getting enough funding because the majority of patients were on medicaid and medicare. I figured it'd be hospitals being afraid that this new insurance wouldn't pay them enough when all the prices of things remain ridiculously expensive. After all, if peoples' insurance you're required to accept isn't paying enough for you to even break even, it ends up destroying your establishment. At least, that's how I understand it.

Why is Obamacare to blame for this?

The point of a single payer system is so that healthcare costs go down, because when you don't have people who cant pay, you dont have medical services trying to recoup the costs. Or haven't you ever wondered why nearly every medical service gives discounts based on how fast you pay, Ive seen up to 50% if you pay within the month.

I don't get it, especially with the republicans complaining about it... isn't it based on the system Romney established in in Massachusetts?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massac.....th_care_reform

Already stated why. Because people are afraid of it so they won't hire anyone.

We have a single payer healthcare system where everyone pays into it through their taxes. On average Candians pay only 1% more in taxes than the US and our taxes cover healthcare. I think that is a pretty good deal. I had a hernia operation a few years back in the best dedicated hernis hospital in north america and it cost me nothing (and no decuctable). I have yearly physicals and STD testing free and since I have hematomacrosis, I get my yearly phlebotomy sessions for free. Perscription drugs are another matter but fortunately my work healcare plan covers most of that charge.

it's not, but it's a lot more efficient if you read about it and look at the numbers, both Canada and the UK spend less per capita than the US and more of their people have access to good care, and the quality is as good as the US.

Even if we do have better doctors as some claim (not something proven) what does it matter if you can't afford it like most of the US?

Wow... Just wow...

I am happy to live in France now, where situation might be crap overall, but at least medical servcies are still covered for stuff like this...

Please stay in one piece.

most insurances don't cover ambulance rides, so I hope yours does

Hey, that ambulance ride is surprisingly cheap! BLS route where I work is a $1700 default.

Sucks, don't it? D:

Soooo $$!! See my comments below

Yeah, I saw it, haha. I guess it makes sense when yours is supported by the taxpayers and ours are 100% private companies? It sucks though.

Ya, that would be brutal. We do calls in Quebec across the river (and incidentally provincial border) up to 50 times a year as a sort of 'courtesy' because they have staffing/budget issues, and only charge their gov't $1000 a pop.

I'm glad I live in a country with free health care...

Damn o.o

Depending how well you can tolerate pain it's pretty simple to relocate anything thats been dislocated other than the hips. Had both my shoulders and left elbow dislocated and had my old man relocate them for me. Hurts for like 10 seconds then you feel better. This was before I was completely covered by work though. Feel better soon!

Thats.....wow....I dislocated my knee and went to the hospital and didnt get a bill, though I toughed it out and didnt use drugs or stay there, but damn, whatd they shoot you up with? gold? x.x

If you are a legal resident of MA and make less than a specific amount you are eligible for help with the bill. There's a number you can call on the bill. The program is called MA Safetynet, if the bill is from Cooly Dick, they have a desk near the radiology, it's a bitch to get them to see you during their walk-in hours but if you are persistent they are extremely helpful, just come early and expect it to take an hour or two. They helped me cover a chunk of a bill when there was a hiccup with my insurance coverage and it helped save me from going into debt, if you are eligible I recommend trying it.

I should add, Tapestry Health can also give you more info.

About the same for one treatment of getting rid of kidney stones for one side by lipotripsky.

I'm a medic in Ontario, Canada. Flat $45 fee for ambulance no matter what, as long as you are resident of the province. That bill seems absurd, for what...splint and transport? -glad I don't live in the USA-

I'll clarify...emergency ambulance. Patient transfers are generally free unless you use a private service, and non-emergency ambulance transport to ER as deemed so by a doc is $240.

Come live in the UK, all you would have paid if for each prescription drug you received, and even then it's only £7.50 per prescription! US healthcare makes my mind boggle! Hope your healing well and all of this is covered by your insurance! <3

-Believe- me I know firsthand how mind-blowingly ludicrous hospital bills can get. When all was said and done with my gall-bladder removal surgery, I was staring down a whopping $90,000 bill. No, that comma is in the right place. Yes, that's -90k-, I -wish- I was making that up. ESPECIALLY since the entire debaucle took place in the midst of waiting for my insurance to kick in, which means the entire ordeal -wouldn't- be covered. I'm telling you, I just about died of a heart-attack when they brought me that quarter-inch thick stapled packet they called my bill. X_X

I got -very- fortunate, tho, in that I was able to get the entirety of the bill's cost waived through the hospital's own financial assistance program, by proving proof that my living conditions and income were insufficient to ever even -hope- of paying such an enormous bill. Never even knew such a program existed, but I thank -all- the powers than be that they do.

All in all, ending up in the hospital requiring ANY sort of extended stay, tests, medication, and/or surgery costs a small fortune, one way or another. I -really- wish you the best of luck in dealing with this, and I hope the entirety of your medical expenditures get taken care of through insurance.

When my gallbladder died my hospital bill ended up around 10k for a two-day stay, plus surgery to remove it. I did not have a hospital ride. Insurance covered all but 2k.

Recently had to take my first ambulance to the pregnancy and triage ward (Aka the secret pregnancy ER) because I was in a car accident and belted my stomach pretty hard as well as the airbag deploying. Insurance covered all but 50 on that, and I think worker's comp will cover what insurance did not. (The ER visit is lumped in with our pregnancy package so I can't even tell you how much that is.)
-

Just remember, what they don't cover you can pay off slowly. It's a medical bill and thus has no interest.

You may also want to ask if the homeowner's/renter's insurance covers an ambulance ride. I think ours does but I am not sure anymore as I have not read that paperwork in years.