My wife was air lifted via fixed wing aircraft. The 45 min. flight was $55,000. Insurance covered $11,000.
Comment on I can't believe this is the only comm that will not throw a hissy fit about this.
Hazel@piefed.blahaj.zone 1 day ago
Even countries with universal health insurance usually won’t cover helicopter rescue, you need travel insurance which covers mountaineering expeditions. Or you can just pay, it’s like 5k I’ve heard.
Professorozone@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Photonic@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
You had to pay $44,000 out of pocket for a single flight?!
Professorozone@lemmy.world 1 hour ago
No. What happened was my wife worked for probably two years to get the insurance company to pay the full bill or have the ambulance company reduce it.
In case anyone here doesn’t know, never pay the first bill you get. Wait until the final bill. The insurance company and the provider keep negotiating and the price comes down, often in a significant way.
Anyway, the air ambulance service refused to reduce and just said they didn’t negotiate. That was just what they charge. The insurance company just kept saying that they already paid and weren’t going to pay more. Mind you after the $124,000 hospital bill, we had reached her out-of-pocket maximum of $16,000, which we did pay. Mind you, my wife was unconscious and actually never agreed to be airlifted. When it looked like they were going to sue us for the rest of the bill, my wife’s employer agreed to pay the bill for us. They were self insured and not happy with the carrier they had chosen. This apparently wasn’t the first issue they had had with their employees. It was a non profit and we were grateful for their kindness.
Also, we had the same problem with the ground ambulance which charged $1600 to drive her from the airport to the hospital, a distance of about 2 miles. You can literally see the hospital from the airport.
Also on a related note, since we had paid our maximum family out of pocket, I opted to have a recommended colonoscopy at that time. That’s when we found out that I am NOT family. Family=children. I’m a spouse and had to meet my own out-of-pocket maximum. It’s a really great system.
finallymadeanaccount@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
Well, at least she wasn’t on Spirit Airlines.
mastertigurius@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
Norway covers it. We regularly see news about foreign tourists who either take stupid risks and have to be airlifted down, or tourists who book a night at one of the mountain cabins and then trigger a whole red cross search party with two helicopters when they don’t show up. It’s all covered by the state.
Awooooooga@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
It’s free where I live in Squamish bc.
wowwoweowza@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Honestly… California pays a ton in rescuing stuck folks who got themselves into deadly situations… I’m really torn but I do think they have some responsibility in that.
WhyIHateTheInternet@lemmy.world 1 day ago
People don’t think California be like it is but it do
ttayh@lemmy.zip 14 hours ago
Brazil does it
Nonconfrontational@lemmy.ml 12 hours ago
Free in most provinces in Canada.
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 13 hours ago
Air ambulance services are free in Italy if you call the 118 or 112 emergency number and it’s an emergency
Otherwise, if not urgent and for programmed transfers you can get a private air ambulance for 6 to 15k/hourJohanno@feddit.org 15 hours ago
In Germany it is covered as long as you are still in Germany.
Hell sometimes even the flight from another country bqcj to Germany for surgery is covered.
Gloomy@mander.xyz 23 hours ago
My girlfriend had to be air lifted by helicopter in New Zealand. They didn’t want our insurance details, because their local insurance covered us already. This was in 2010, so no idea of this would still apply.