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Lifeguard gets 2,600$ bill after saving boy from the Surf

Mr. Laser Beam said:
I had heard that even in the US, anyone who goes to the ER - even if they're broke and have no insurance - must be treated. Is that apocryphal? :confused:
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I saw part of a Michael Moore documentary about the American health service once. Apparently people taken to the ER, and subsequently discovered to be without insurance, were then taken out of the hospital and essentially dumped on the sidewalk outside care centres run by charities. The centres had only the most basic of provisions and equipment, usually inadequate for the patients needs. The ambulance crews dropping them off didn't even bother to inform the staff. As the patients were often heavily sedated at the time, there was no guarantee they would even enter the building.

As I say, I only saw part of the documentary, so I may have this out of context.
 
I guess Mr. Moore didn't know about Indigent Health Care... That's why our (especially the University) Hospital ERs are so flipping crowded every day. People with no means to pay cannot be turned away for that reason. That's why they go to ERs when they have something simple as a cold.
 
I thought it was going to be more information on this story from last month:

Tomas Lopez was fired Monday by Orlando-based Jeff Ellis and Associates because he broke a company rule and could have put beachgoers in his section of Hallandale Beach in jeopardy.

“We have liability issues and can’t go out of the protected area,” supervisor Susan Ellis told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “What he did was his own decision. He knew the company rules and did what he thought he needed to do.”
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So what rule did Lopez break, you might ask... He saved a man who was drowning, but the man was outside the zone Lopez oversaw.

Not sure what happened, one article said he declined his old job back. Legoland also offered him a job in an open letter, written by the park's General Manager.
 
Moral of the story: Let drowning people drown, at least in the U.S.

The honorable thing would be for the boy's family to pay the lifeguard's hospital bill.
 
Addin' a little fuel to the fire..

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/article/2012/07/12/how-i-lost-my-fear-universal-health-care



When I got pregnant shortly after moving, I was apprehensive. Would I even be able to have a home birth like I had experienced with my first 2 babies? Universal Health Care meant less choice right? So I would be forced to do whatever the medical system dictated regardless of my feelings, because of the government mandate. I even talked some of having my baby across the border in the US, where I could pay out of pocket for whatever birth I wanted. So imagine my surprise when I discovered that midwives were not only covered by the Universal health care, they were encouraged! Even for hospital births. In Canada, midwives and doctors were both respected, and often worked together.
I went to my first midwife appointment and sat in the waiting room looking at the wall of informational pamphlets. I never went to the doctor growing up, we didn't have health insurance, and my parents preferred a conservative naturopathic doctor anyways. And the doctor I had used for my first 2 births was also a conservative Christian. So I had never seen information on birth control and STDs. One of the pamphlets read "Pregnant Unexpectedly?" so I picked it up, wondering what it would say. The pamphlet talked about adoption, parenthood, or abortion. It went through the basics of what each option would entail and ended by saying that these choices were up to you. I was horrified that they included abortion on the list of options, and the fact that the pamphlet was so balanced instead of "pro-life."
During my appointment that day, the midwife asked her initial round of questions including whether or not I had desired to become pregnant in the first place. Looking back I am not surprised she asked that, I was depressed at the time, (even though I did not list that on my medical chart) and very vocal about my views on birth control (it wasn't OK, ever.) No wonder she felt like she should ask if I was happy to be having this baby. But I was angry about the whole thing. In my mind, freedom was being violated, my rights were being decided for me by the evils of Universal Health Care.
Fast forward a little past the Canadian births of my third and fourth babies. I had better prenatal care than I had ever had in the States. I came in regularly for appointments to check on my health and my babies' health throughout my pregnancy, and I never had to worry about how much a test cost or how much the blood draw fee was. With my pregnancies in the States, I had limited my checkups to only a handful to keep costs down. When I went in to get the shot I needed because of my negative blood type, it was covered. In fact I got the recommended 2 doses instead of the more risky 1 dose because I didn't have to worry about the expense. I had a wide array of options and flexibility when it came to my birth, and care providers that were more concerned with my health and the health of my baby than how much money they might make based on my birth, or what might impact their reputation best. When health care is universal, Drs are free to recommend and provide the best care for every patient instead of basing their care on what each patient can afford.
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USA has the best health care system in the world?..I call B/S on that..
 
Everytime some Saudi Oil Prince flies to the Mayo Clinic for world-class treatment, it gives me an Ameriboner.
 
Trekker4747 said:
MANT! said:
USA has the best health care system in the world?..I call B/S on that..
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America DOES have the best health care in the world... If you can afford it.
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Exactly.

Yoda said:
Everytime some Saudi Oil Prince flies to the Mayo Clinic for world-class treatment, it gives me an Ameriboner.
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Or Massachusetts General or Johns Hopkins. In fact, the huge new building that just opened at Hopkins is named the Sheikh Zayed Tower in memory of the father of the major donor.

(Edited to apologize for double posting. I lost track of what I was doing.)
 
I would call an ambulance, but who knows if you could pay for it. :p

The NHS in the UK migght have it's faults. But at least I know I'll be treated and not get a bill
 
Most of the ER charges, while high, are almost understandable.

But $1900 for a fucking ambulance ride? It's not like the EMT's were keeping him alive during the ride.

But then, why does an OTC (name brand) pill cost $30 for a month's supply, while the prescription "version" is $160 for the month?
 
I always thought $1900 for an ambulance ride was bullshit. Where exactly does the money go?
 
$1900 for the ambulance ride is ludicrous. The two or three EMTs on the ambulance for even an hour's time is only costing less than $100. Gas for the bus? Shit, even if they used the whole tank you're looking at only another $100 or so. Supplies and stuff they used to "treat" him along the way? What? Another $100 or even $200? Depending on how much costs to treat a headache, hook him up to the life-monitoring equipment? I just can't see where $1900 of "cost" is in the use of that ambulance! Even factoring in "wear and tear" on the vehicle/standard "depreciation costs" it wouldn't get close to $1900.
 
Trekker4747 said:
$1900 for the ambulance ride is ludicrous. The two or three EMTs on the ambulance for even an hour's time is only costing less than $100. Gas for the bus? Shit, even if they used the whole tank you're looking at only another $100 or so. Supplies and stuff they used to "treat" him along the way? What? Another $100 or even $200? Depending on how much costs to treat a headache, hook him up to the life-monitoring equipment? I just can't see where $1900 of "cost" is in the use of that ambulance! Even factoring in "wear and tear" on the vehicle/standard "depreciation costs" it wouldn't get close to $1900.
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It's all about funding the "readiness" of the ambulance and it's teams. Thus, when they're finally called into action, the bill is partly for the operational costs for the incident, plus a portion of the readiness overhead.

If the government was partially funding it, it would be a different story.

What surprises me is that the lifeguard had to take an ambulance ride to deal with a residual headache. Was it that bad that he couldn't drive himself, or have a friend take him? It wasn't clarified. Also, given the life risks involved in lifeguard duty, the beach should have some medical insurance coverage in effect during that time (not in effect when the lifeguard leaves the beach).
 
Hey may have been taken to the hospital as "just a precaution."

The ambulance may have already been dispatched there to look over the girl he rescued.
 
Gary7 said:
Also, given the life risks involved in lifeguard duty, the beach should have some medical insurance coverage in effect during that time (not in effect when the lifeguard leaves the beach).
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The lifeguard was described as a trained "pool" lifeguard, so apparently he just happened to be at the beach. He wasn't working there. So insurance coverage for the beach lifeguards wouldn't apply to him. Assuming that the details in the article were true, of course.
 
My wife had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance recently. They charged us (our insurance company) $200...for gasoline! The hospital was 4.1 miles away. Even accounting for the the trip to where she was, and the trip back to the station, that comes out to nearly $17 a mile. That means the ambulance gets less than 1/4 mile per gallon.

God Bless America!

:techman:
 
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