Spyke
lemmy.world

The signs exist, usually as militany bravado. I like this one because it pairs the dumb sign with America's debilitating healthcare costs.

60
Echo Dotreply
feddit.uk

So is it meant to be interpreted as a threat? As in if you break into my house I won't call the police I'll just shoot you.

Isn't that the same as a "trespasses will be shot" sign that's been around for decades.

28
lemmy.ml

I think it's more like "we don't need big gubment, we're self sufficient".

22

It's really a great sign because it sends multiple messages like: "I'm easily swayed by propaganda aimed at morons." And "I need you to know my personal feelings about this because I've made it part of my identity while I scream about identity politics."

10
SeaJreply

It's basically advertising that there are guns to steal in the house.

26

It's a real thing in Europe cause we call 112 or 999 if you're in the UK.

18

My mom's neighbor has one. And by neighbor, I mean it's hanging on the door of a garage in the back of an alley, and his house is 10 minutes away. Not like he'd be there to call 911 most of the time anyway, I think I only saw him 3 times in 16 years of living there lol

2
kbin.social

This reminded me, does anyone know what the profit margin on ambulance trips are? They must surely be outrageous, but to what degree?

33
lemmy.world

Considering they pay the EMTs minimum wage, probably even more magnificent than you'd expect.

35
Diabolo96reply
lemmy.dbzer0.com

You probably meant to use significant. Magnificent is something of high beauty. I don't think them stealing EMTs wage is beautiful but maybe you do so am not gonna judge you. /s /jk

12

They don't pay them minimum wage here, think it starts at $18 whereas min wage is 7.50 I think.

They do rip people off though

1
lemmy.ml

Many years ago I was run over by a car, the charge of the ambulance was $800 USD, the total hospital bill for the 4 hours I was in "observation" was $28,000. I did not have medical insurance at that time.

18
Hadriscusreply
lemm.ee

How is that possible. A single accident and you're in debt for life ?

4
lemmy.world

Man people always complain about this but it's super easy to get out of these without paying nearly as much.

  1. Call and ask for an itemized bill.

  2. Get bill 3 months later and see the price hasn't changed

  3. Call and ask about a payment plan

3b. Make less than $10k a year so you qualify

  1. Go back in time and get health insurance

4b. Go back and get health insurance that doesn't have a $12k deductible

4c. Go back and get health insurance that has a low deductible and actually covers at least half of your treatment

  1. Maybe just don't get run over by cars. Or get sick. Or inherit genetic diseases. And for the love of God don't get hurt on the job.

It's really that easy.

5
Dudewitbowreply
lemmy.ml

Depends on aspect. Its actually not cheap to run an ambulence with the required personel and materials swapped often on call. I believe the main reason why its expemsive is because more often then not, the ambulence isnt paid for so said company takes a loss.

ambulence costs are also tied down by law in some cities, so for those specific cities, its the city making the cost, not the company.

For Europe, the bulk of the cost is covered by theor health care, so their out of pocket cost is low. In the U.S, its broken because insurance often denies the ride depending on insurance company and documentation.

11
S_204reply
lemmy.world

In Canada, our healthcare is free but we do pay for fire and medic services outside of that funding model.

An ambulance is about $600.... but anyone with employee insurance would be covered. Insurance typically covers things like massage, vision and physiotherapy services.

7
sopuli.xyz

If we assume an ambulance+equipment costs $500k and has to be replaced every 5 years, requires 4 personnel around the clock to operate with the cost of employing one being $50/h, one ambulance getting an average of 4 calls per day and per call average costs of gas, medicine and other disposable stuff being $300 we are looking at about per ride cost of $1500 so if one ambulance ride costs 12k as per the other comment, we are looking at a profit margin of 87.5% even with these very likely way too high cost estimations.

8
quicksandreply
lemmy.world

I like how you went into a detailed analysis of the cost and then whiffed on a decimal at the end. I'm pretty sure it should be 875%, which really shows how egregious this is. Thanks for your effort making this estimate, it's appreciated.

7
sopuli.xyz

from my understanding profit margin is calculated by (sales-costs)/revenue making it impossible for it to be more than 100%

the markup/profit percentage would be calculated as (selling price/costs)-1 so that would be 700%

this is at least how i understood the wikipedia pages

4

Ya you're right, I misunderstood the comment I replied to and I also didn't try to check the math, but it seemed in the ballpark. I don't know why people upvoted me lmao

1
Asafumreply
feddit.nl

Where are you getting $50/hr? EMTs in the US make taco bell wages. They literally save lives, you can't be more valuable than that, and yet our wonderful corporations love to exploit the shit out of people who care...

The general state of things is so goddamn disgusting.

3

i made all the numbers up, and chose numbers wildly over what they likely actually are as im not from us so dont know the wages of emts nor the actual cost of hiring someone(in my country the cost of employing a person is about 1.3-1.6 i dont remember exactly times their actual wage) and just to show how much more they could be paid and still have ridiculous profits

2

I think that even in parts of Europe why you do pay for health care, you don't pay for the ambulance. The reason being is that if the ambulance has already turned up, and the EMTs have already assessed you, it doesn't cost them any more money to transport you to the hospital so there isn't really any legitimate reason to charge you.

What ambulances really are is just flat operating costs. But those are costs that can be predicted ahead of time so they tend to be paid for either by the hospital through some grant, or from the city. Or through taxes, like with the rest of healthcare, in places with free healthcare.

4

There is, but they get labeled as terrorists while far right gets called tourists when they storm the capital building.

13

You reached the end

We don't call 911 | Spyke