I cannot tell you how many ugly little bills from ambulance companies we have had over the years. They come and they help, but as soon as you are able, sometimes while you are still sick/bleedling/ they are getting your billing info. Insurance does not really pay for it, at least ours does not.
I am so grateful and aware that we are lucky to have health insurance. And C's seizures are well covered-- except for the ambulance.
C is a sweet young girl. She has a condition that no sane person could believe she brought upon herself. It is different if you are older and not as cute. If they think you cannot pay sometimes you get less compassion. I had this experience when we were dirt poor in Norfolk Va, We were Navy, but did not live on base. I woke up in the night with a rupturing ovarian cyst. Ambulance dawdled. By the time they arrived it had burst. I felt somewhat better. Then they just pitched me in the back, no bp, no history, no nothing. They assumed I was just fine. I could have been dying of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, or a ruptured appendix. They assumed I just felt ill and wanted a lift to the hospital er.
They also failed to make it in time for my friend who had a baby into my hands later that year. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life, but oh, it could have gone so wrong. She was very overweight, had high bp, and was carrying child number 6, at the age of 26. I guess you could say it was her fault, if you were the sort who wanted to look at things that way. She had had her first child at 14.
How does it work overseas? I know you guys out there are well covered. Do you have to pay for ambulance rides?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/health/think-the-er-was-expensive-look-at-the-ambulance-bill.html?_r=0
I am so grateful and aware that we are lucky to have health insurance. And C's seizures are well covered-- except for the ambulance.
C is a sweet young girl. She has a condition that no sane person could believe she brought upon herself. It is different if you are older and not as cute. If they think you cannot pay sometimes you get less compassion. I had this experience when we were dirt poor in Norfolk Va, We were Navy, but did not live on base. I woke up in the night with a rupturing ovarian cyst. Ambulance dawdled. By the time they arrived it had burst. I felt somewhat better. Then they just pitched me in the back, no bp, no history, no nothing. They assumed I was just fine. I could have been dying of a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, or a ruptured appendix. They assumed I just felt ill and wanted a lift to the hospital er.
They also failed to make it in time for my friend who had a baby into my hands later that year. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life, but oh, it could have gone so wrong. She was very overweight, had high bp, and was carrying child number 6, at the age of 26. I guess you could say it was her fault, if you were the sort who wanted to look at things that way. She had had her first child at 14.
How does it work overseas? I know you guys out there are well covered. Do you have to pay for ambulance rides?
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/05/health/think-the-er-was-expensive-look-at-the-ambulance-bill.html?_r=0
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eglantine_br- eglantine_br
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Generally no. If you need an ambulance in an emergency you do not pay. Even air ambulances are free. Both my mother and my niece have been flown off the island in air ambulances in the past. I shudder to think what the actual cost would have been. Having said that, a did have a colleague whose wife broke her leg while visiting London and he had to pay for a private ambulance to transport her back up to Glasgow.
They may send you a bill. I know my sister had to be brought to the hospital with a helicopter. That costs 100 Euro per minute and was more than 4000 Euro. Normally you pay 10%. If you are living on social wellfare you pay up to 80 Euro a year only, the rest your insurance. Good to know :)
Non-emergency health care is free as well, though in practise the National Health Service is underfunded and doesn't always provide treatments that you would get if you could afford private healthcare...
But in the case of emergency we don't need to worry about the payment. It's quite good, we can feel secure. Our family have called ambulance twice but never paid for it. It's difficult to imagine the life without the free ambulance, it must be quite tough.
I've only had to be in an ambulance once. I think it was covered by my insurance at the time (I don't recall getting a bill for it, but it was a few years ago).