Comic Strips

Due to reasons I took an ambulance ride. For one and a half miles. From one hospital to another. They billed my insurance $6K

what the fuxxx

The paperwork bill for generating all the paperwork. The admin bill, to review the paperwork. The convenience surcharge, for the cost of generating paperwork.

$1400 is unrealistically cheap to the point where I’m pretty sure it’s part of the punch line here

That's without insurance, with insurance it depends. You can have a high deductible and pay that much, but a good plan if it's necessary medically then it should be 0 to a 100 ish payment but sometimes you'll have co-payment so it's still like couple hundred.

When I was in college and on my own for the first time I tripped on the stairs and tore a ligament in my foot. I thought I'd broken something and the school called an ambulance. The ambulance drove me 1 mile to the hospital, where I was given an ice pack and crutches and then turned out with no way to get home (I had to hobble my way to a store to pull out cash to take a bus home).

This entire ordeal was $3000 after insurance. My mom then called me and bitched me out for not taking a taxi.

$1400 is a wildly conservative estimate. In reality, it will be twice that.

Can be. The numbers are basically made up. It’s not uncommon for people to get their X-rays done at a chiropractor and take those to the Dr because it’s cheaper and insurance refuses to pay or it costs more even with insurance. I know someone who realized his wife’s insurance copay was more than if he paid cash for their kids birth. The insurance situation is insane and very complicated. Everything you hear about it is true and happens regularly. I tell people that I would rather have socialize medicine just for getting rid of the paperwork and nonsense. Unfortunately greed and racism are standing in the way.

There's a reason why people often opt for an Uber or just drive themselves to the hospital.

I made the mistake of calling for an ambulance once, and that's the day I learned that they are owned by private companies in the US. I couldn't afford the bill, so I had to put up with seven years of bad credit before the charge finally disappeared off my record and I was allowed to own a credit card and buy a vehicle without paying for it in full with cash.

On the bright side, weed is legal and abundant. And unlike in Amsterdam, you don't even have to smoke it because it comes in so many different forms! So instead of going to the doctor, I just drink and vape to my health.

God I hate living in this country.

vulture capitalist

I'm going to reuse this

That's amazing.

Honestly read it as 14,000 and didn't think twice until you corrected it.

That's the VIP one where they offer things life a bed, vehicle suspension, paramedics.

Groundhog Day 2 is a bit grittier than the original.

At the risk of getting myself a rain of downvotes here:

An ambulance is an expensive and somewhat rare mini-ER on wheels that's designed to help a small team of expensive and somewhat rare specialists stabilize a dangerous condition on a patient until it reaches a hospital. Since it is important to keep those somewhat rare vehicles and teams in reserve for when they are suddenly urgently needed, you really shouldn't use one as a taxi to the hospital if whatever your condition is doesn't call for that.

(Asking enormous sums of money of the patient for the privilege is IMHO still wrong. The decision to use an ambulance or not should not be based on whether you can can easily part with a couple thousand dollars.)

Usually more 3-5,000 for the ride. More medicine extra but most ambulance rides dont need extra.

Also somehow the paramedics doing the care are getting like minimum wage...its such a scam.