• 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘬@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          I heard about it. Is it really that bad? Preferring to drive to the hospital on your own in case of an emergency instead of calling an ambulance sounds really wild.

          • Medatrix@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Could you drop 4000+ on a mile car ride?

            I have only used an ambulance once but it was for a friend and I who got into a car wreck. It set us back close to 10k thankfully it was covered by insurance.

              • Seleni@lemmy.world
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                7 months ago

                And now you get it.

                Here in the US, many of us have standing orders to NEVER call an ambulance, and be driven by a friend instead. If it’s really bad, we’ll be paying $10,000+ in medical bills already (assuming we have insurance, if not it’ll probably be closer to $1 mil). We just can’t afford to tack on an extra few thousand. And if it wasn’t bad after all, we definitely don’t want to pay an extra few thousand.

                And heaven forbid you have to use Life Flight.

                Plus, our ambulances are staffed by people paid just slightly above minimum wage, with no medical degree and only cursory medical training. To be fair, it’s better than most medical training (ie what police and firefighters get) but it’s still no doctorate.

                  • Seleni@lemmy.world
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                    7 months ago

                    Yes. Yes there should.

                    But keep us in mind as a cautionary tale should people in your country start talking about how ‘great’ private health care is.

                    It’s happening in England right now, in fact, so I bet there are at least some people in your country that will start trying to push it soon.

          • chitak166@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            100%.

            Preferring to drive to the hospital on your own in case of an emergency instead of calling an ambulance sounds really wild.

            It is.