r/fuckinsurance • u/Northern_Blue_Jay • 11d ago
200 dollar bill for refusing an ambulance
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u/Unusual_Strength668 No money? Fuck you, die. 11d ago
Amazing. If I'll ever be in a crash, I'll make it clear on the 911 call: send a cop only, do not send ambulance!
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u/Unusual_Strength668 No money? Fuck you, die. 11d ago
Credit bureaus have stopped including medical debt under $500 in their reports nationwide. Some states even go further by banning the reporting of medical debt. So this $200 bill has no teeth. I'd tell them to go eat a bag of dicks.
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u/heywoodidaho 11d ago
Give the bill to whoever called the ambulance. They are probably covered by "good samaritan" laws. Explain that they're attention was unneeded and unwanted and you won't pay for someone's overreaction. Further explain that they're only recourse is to shove it up their ass'es.
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u/Northern_Blue_Jay 11d ago
Though I know you mean well, that's not a good idea. See my response to u/turqoisestar.
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u/turquoisestar 11d ago
To be fair, someone could be bleeding out and about to die, and be so worried about medical costs they refuse treatment, in which the person calling 911 did the right thing.
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u/Northern_Blue_Jay 11d ago edited 11d ago
Yes, I wouldn't recommend that. It's already hard enough to get Americans to care about their fellow human. and people have enough problems fighting for their own healthcare.
I once stopped, without a phone, to help a woman lying in the middle of the street having seizures, asking one person after the next if they could call 911, and all these people kept refusing and continuing on.
Finally, I got this one person to call -- a man out biking with his family - - and of course they weren't Americans, but Europeans visiting on vacation, and from a normal country with UHC -- and the father phoned ... but whereupon he was then extensively grilled on the phone as if he himself were a criminal, and it was absolutely horrendous ... and while this poor woman was writhing and seizing and foaming on the sidewalk.
Eventually, we had a few other people stop, too (not all is lost in America) - but while this was going on, this poor woman was becoming more conscious (it wasn't epilepsy, BTW, and she wasn't an addict) - and she starts trying to get rid of her IDs before the ambulance shows up. IOW while she was becoming more conscious in the middle of a medical crisis -- the first thing on her mind, and that was terrifying her, wasn't her own health condition, but the cost of an ambulance and being taken to a hospital.
We are finished as a nation if we don't deal with this, head on, and just straightforward pass a national #singlepayer health care program that covers everyone, such as improved #MedicareForAll (similar to the Canadian model) ... but I like the U.K. model, as some prefer, so I'm fine too if they just #NationalizeTheBastards and #LockThemAllUp. (I don't think people should quarrel over which one - whichever one makes it happen - and more quickly - is good by me!)
#SinglePayerNow
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u/Plenty-Confection-12 10d ago
Call them and say services were refused. Write the same on the bill and send.
The last time this happened to me, they sent an ambulance 40 min after we refused services. The accident was also across the road from a fire station.
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u/afterphil 10d ago
How the hell can you bill someone for not using your service? That’s like McDonald’s sending you a bill because you ate at Wendy’s…
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u/nikrav97 11d ago
Is this legal?