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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn Fresno, two homeless men got 1,363 free ambulance rides in 2011
http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/02/11/2719079/ambulance-is-pricey-taxi-service.htmlTwo homeless men in Fresno have called for an ambulance an average of nearly twice a day for more than a year, racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in costs and even more when they get to a hospital.
They are Fresno County's highest-volume ambulance users -- "frequent fliers" as they are called in the business -- and their 1,363 combined trips made up 1.34% of all American Ambulance calls in the county last year.
... Because the men don't pay for the rides, the bulk of the costs is passed on to others in the form of higher insurance rates. Taxpayers pick up part of the tab through Medi-Cal and other government programs.
Some in the industry say the two are abusing the system, using it as a free taxi service. But the men, who are friends, say they're just trying to get to a hospital for treatment of their chronic illnesses.
Read more: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/02/11/2719079/ambulance-is-pricey-taxi-service.html
Newsjock comment: Many of the reader comments at the link point out that this is a symptom of the broken safety net, despite what I see as an attempt by The Bee to further demonize the homeless. No matter what the cause -- broken insurance, broken mental care, whatever -- it certainly shows how broken things are.
cliffordu
(30,994 posts)(cough)
Zalatix
(8,994 posts)Oh wait, the cops would forcibly remove them.
hmmmmmmm.
xchrom
(108,903 posts)Spock_is_Skeptical
(1,491 posts)Joe the Revelator
(14,915 posts)Quantess
(27,630 posts)I wish there was a way to figuratively tear it all down and create a completely new one from scratch.
Electric Monk
(13,869 posts)LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)but they'll probably continue to do so until MediCal stops paying the bill.
Why does a homeless guy have a lawyer? And why is his lawyer telling him how to use the ambulance system as a taxi service instead of telling him to knock that shit off before he has a real emergency and they don't come?
ZombieHorde
(29,047 posts)Why does our country have homeless people? Why don't we have medicaid for all?
FrodosPet
(5,169 posts)Or at the very minimum, provide them with apartments and live-in caregivers?
That would be cheaper, and they can get the intense level of care and attention they need.
LeftyMom
(49,212 posts)Neither seizures nor liver disease require continual inpatient care, and it's not a housing program.
edit: They'd probably be eligible for whatever the local equivalent of Paratransit is, and maybe their social worker could arrange for a bus pass or reimbursement for transportation via those medical transport vans. But they're figured out how to get door to door service on demand, so I doubt they'd be interested.