Air Ambulance Insurance

[IronwoodFarm]

@SonnysMom

Check with your primary health insurance company. Many primary health insurance companies will cover air ambulance. Some will limit the amount to $10,000 or $100,000. Some don’t limit it. No point in paying for coverage you already have.

This^^. I’m familiar with a number of air ambulance stories. A friend fell off a camel in Uzebekistan. He broke a number of ribs which were complicated by the local hospital’s care/lack of care. His travel insurance for an air ambulance from Uzebekistan to Dubai, and then for a first class ticket with an accompanying nurse for the flight to the US when he was released from Dubai. Another friend has a child nearly drown and needed an air ambulance to get the child from Las Vegas (where the accident occurred) to Seattle. They had to pay $15K out of pocket. The air ambulance service billed their insurance carrier significantly more. While their cost was capped at $15K, the cap in place for air ambulance service mean the carrier only paid a portion and both payments did not equal the full bill.

My trainer took an air ambulance ride from a farm to the local hospital. I think her bills was $10K for a 20 minute flight. She did not have the money to pay and somehow she got the cost forgiven.

[shiloh]

@Stacie

I’ve seen some programs where you join a specific o company, but that’s just the same problem as hoping you get an in network carrier at the accident.

Is there a nationwide insurance when you’re n covered regardless of who does the flying?

Looks like you have these folk. And look at the coverage area! Holy Moly! You buy their insurance and you are pretty much covered everywhere because of their affiliations. Worth every penny of the $85 to me.
https://www.airmedcarenetwork.com/coverage/?ads_cmpid=307042982&ads_adid=1304020805849352&ads_matchtype=p&ads_network=o&ads_creative=creative&utm_term=air%20ambulance&ads_targetid=kwd-81501322853402:loc-43951&utm_campaign=&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=ppc&ttv=2&msclkid=9a0c4ce5e7411410161d106aea6df7d7

[shiloh]

@WNT

Wouldn’t it be novel if we had a system of insurance where you’d never get financially penalized for having an injury or accident “out of network”?

I used to hate having to explain “out of network” to people. Especially if they had had something traumatic happen. It WAS like punishing them. There should be one flat fee. One fee for office visits and another for emergencies. I was very lucky that the last hospital I worked for covered all emergency visits regardless of where they were AND paid for the local air ambulance CalStar. I used to read some of the contracts with insurance companies and wonder “Do you want to get paid? Apparently not…” they were so byzantine and often arcane, It was torture to interpret them.

[Bluey]

@shiloh

Looks like you have these folk. And look at the coverage area! Holy Moly! You buy their insurance and you are pretty much covered everywhere because of their affiliations. Worth every penny of the $85 to me.
https://www.airmedcarenetwork.com/co…1d106aea6df7d7

I think the company running that service in our area is from Missouri, so probably also covers several states.

One of the local hospitals had such a service for a couple decades, then had to discontinue it because of the cost.

After that this company applied to service the area.
At that time, the TV news kept asking people to join, they needed a minimum of so many members to add to the money it was going to take to have them work out of our area.

Those situations are considered here more of a social tax.
You participate so everyone can profit in programs and services that would not work here without the support of the community, even some you may never use.

Think, if your insurance would pay for that service so you won’t sign on, if there is no service because it is not being supported sufficiently, that your insurance may have covered it becomes moot question.
Those extra minutes quicker to the hospital can save lives.

When they presented it like that, it made sense to pay the fee so we could have that service for those that may need it.

[clanter]

@Bluey

Those situations are considered here more of a social tax.

well my little city is preparing to spent 2.1 million dollars of Federal money on a sidewalk to nowhere. I have been to several meetings attempting to stop this foolishness but the response I keep getting is its Federal money and the sidewalk is part of a regional plan. (Of a network of interconnecting sidewalks that the only proven users are to be used by the drug dealers delivering their products by bikes.)

Sure a few people use these sidewalks and I mean very few as these are not neighborhood sidewalks which are constantly used but ones that interconnect points of one city to another but for the overall betterment of social-welfare they are near worthless

This $2.1 million dollars is nearly the same as the average cost to pay for a medical helicopter and crew for one year

[Bluey]

@clanter

well my little city is preparing to spent 2.1 million dollars of Federal money on a sidewalk to nowhere. I have been to several meetings attempting to stop this foolishness but the response I keep getting is its Federal money and the sidewalk is part of a regional plan. (Of a network of interconnecting sidewalks that the only proven users are to be used by the drug dealers delivering their products by bikes.)

Sure a few people use these sidewalks and I mean very few as these are not neighborhood sidewalks which are constantly used but ones that interconnect points of one city to another but for the overall betterment of social-welfare they are near worthless

This $2.1 million dollars is nearly the same as the average cost to pay for a medical helicopter and crew for one year

Don’t know about that path proyect.
The way you tell it, some times “you can’t fix stupid” may just apply.

When I was a student in Europe, we had bike paths ever place, even between towns.
I used one of those daily to go to college.
They made using a bicycle safer and the traffic over half a century ago was minimal compared with today’s traffic.
It was either a bicycle all the way or to the train station, or walk to it, then use the train, then walk.
The bicycle all the way was quicker for many.
Not many students had cars, not many people did.

I think that today designated bicycle paths would be a life saver, keeping bicycles to their own paths, if people really use them.
Not sure people in the US would use them sufficiently, since all have cars or access to them today.

Not sure that is similar to medical air lift programs.
Much of the use of the one here is in vehicular accidents on the expressway, most time not by locals, but those just driving thru.

[clanter]

@Bluey

I think that today designated bicycle paths would be a life saver, keeping bicycles to their own paths, if people really use them.
Not sure people in the US would use them sufficiently, since all have cars or access to them today.
.

I know this is completely off topic. This specific sidewalk will not be conducive for any bike use or for runners/joggers as it will run at a right angle to the flow of traffic, repeatedly crossing high traffic streets with short distances between crossovers (100 to 200 feet) . We do have marked bike lanes that are incorporated into the streets.

The committee overseeing this expenditure just keeps saying “its free money”

[Bluey]

@clanter

I know this is completely off topic. This specific sidewalk will not be conducive for any bike use or for runners/joggers as it will run at a right angle to the flow of traffic, repeatedly crossing high traffic streets with short distances between crossovers (100 to 200 feet) . We do have marked bike lanes that are incorporated into the streets.

The committee overseeing this expenditure just keeps saying “its free money”

“Free money” like that is shades of the old “New Deal”:

https://www.history.com/topics/great…ssion/new-deal

The government using money to keep the economy ticking along with all kinds of programs.
Not all make sense looking from the outside, or even closer up.
That one may fall into those parameters, creating way more economic activity where it is wanted, regardless of what the job is?

Also, some government departments get a budged they have to hold up to and if they don’t use the money, next budget is smaller, accordingly, why they don’t want to go there and try to spend up to those numbers.

That is governments for you and why we second guess them, or better said, try to hold them accountable, so they don’t “just” use that “free” money.