I did not know this. The ambulance situation is a shambles and wildly differs from state to state and in what your health insurance provider (if you have one) may not make you aware of. The article includes a comparison of all states’ ambulance services.
Why is there a bill for an ambulance? Do you have to pay for calling out the fire brigade or police too?
Multiple reasons – not justifications, but reasons.
A municipality/county can’t or won’t fund EMS in its entirety: either there’s not a large enough tax base or voters don’t want to pay the taxes needed. A functional EMS system isn’t cheap to operate (even with volunteers) and it’s not uncommon to contract it out to private EMS companies in areas that can’t afford full time EMS.
Arguably it’s also to prevent abuse. You’ll get a minority of “super users” that don’t actually need an ambulance and call for some of the most asinine reasons. They’ll lie and say they have chest pain when all they really want is a free taxi ride across town. Or hypochondriacs, people with a mild cold, etc. Some of these people will call multiple times a day, every day.
In the USA we really can’t refuse transport even if we know it’s abuse, and proving abuse is damn near impossible. The problem is a lot of the aforementioned either can’t/won’t pay regardless, or are on public aid and won’t receive the bill. The fucked up part is the costs incurred by those people are carried by those that will pay.
Is the USA part of Northern Territories?
No, but I can only speak as to what I know.
Other countries using the same or similar logic/reasons would be unsurprising. People aren’t fundamentally different regardless of where they live, and culturally Australia has a lot in common with the USA … “good” and bad.
If it’s a false alarms you get billed by fire rescue Victoria. This is normally when it’s a fire alarm system but can be when someone calls.
I’d argue that a fire is relevant to whole community where as medical is just for that person. Obviously this is dependant on the situation and the fire departments do take that into account.
In Qld the state covers ambulance call outs so people don’t pay a cent. The other states could do it too if they wanted.
Ambo callouts are free in Tassie too.
This has boggled my mind to.
Couldn’t she just tell the ambulance company to get their money from their corpse?
Die in debt, folks. Just make sure your family remembers not to accept that debt.
In the US. My friend had to take two ambulances in a week.
Total bill, $5000.
Her Claims to insurance were rejected, and were told to pay it out of pocket.
😮
Certainly can’t say the US is the Land of the Free. I am sorry for your friend. I hope she’s fine now.
Everyone should get ambulance cover. It is affordable and directly funds the ambulance service.
It should be covered by medicare, as should essential dental
I’d vote for that but until it is the best bet is ambulance cover in Victoria. Good on Qld for showing us up.
Victoria isn’t difficult to show up, a little embarrassing when qld does it though. I have never been in a qld hospital, hopefully (for their sake) they are cleaner than victorian ones.
If you’re low income it’s free
In Victoria it’s $50 for a single and $110 for a family annually. Concession is free. Ambulance Victoria does good work and saves many lives, as do ambulance services everywhere.
https://membership.ambulance.vic.gov.au/faqdetails?id=KA-01021
What they’re saying is if you’re poor you might be lucky to have $100 or less a month to live on after you pay everything, where $50 a year represents ~4-5% of a poor person’s yearly income left after paying bills. It’s expensive being poor… They can’t afford things like this and end up stuck with a bigger bill.
For me that’s like paying $2600 a year.
If you are on concession it’s free. If yours a full paying family it’s $110 per year.
But you need to know whether you’ll be charged if your partner or other family member under the cover is actually covered if they die before the ambulance picks them up. The lady in the article was charged $600 because the ambulance picked up her husband from home when he had already died.
Agreed. Looks like a deceased member is a grey area. If a medical practitioner calls the ambulance then you’re covered, if you call it could be at your expense. Note this is for Ambulance Victoria and could be different in other places.
https://membership.ambulance.vic.gov.au/faqdetails?id=KA-01025
