Land of the Fee
this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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The American healthcare system...
Welcome to the US.
If I'm conscious, no matter what happens, I will always have the thought: can I make it to the hospital on my own.
Disgusting dystopian hellhole...
In Switzerland I pay 40CHF (~49USD) yearly to get a free helicopter evacuation in case of an accident. Never needed it, but I know people that have. Absolutely worth it. While it's "just hiking" in most cases, being out in nature in the middle of nowhere can get dangerous fast.
I don’t think people on here realize this but America literally has this too. My grandmother pays for it because she lives out in a very rural area. She pays a little more ($79 a year)
Not bullshitting you: https://www.lifeteam.net/membership
joey lawrence here. i play the dimwitted heartthrob on blossom but there's no heart in the american medical system--last week i paid 5000000 to remove an entire package of sweet tarts from my urethra.
whoa!
Quite limited service area: https://www.lifeteam.net/services/service-area
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In Italy I pay 0€ to be evacuated from anywhere. It's crazy that you have to pay for an emergency.
Yeah it's not great. Transport costs for emergencies are often only covered 50% in Switzerland. We do have the second most costly system after the US, and it's for the same reason imho, private insurers. There are some more guardrails here than in the US, so it's not completely horrible, but there are lots of better systems around Europe.
Regarding helicopter rescue specifically, that's kind of a funny case. In Switzerland the first helicopter rescue organization was founded as a non-profit foundation called Rega, and it continues to operate that way.
For patrons the Rega eats the cost of a rescue that no insurance covers. If you are not a patron and get rescued then the cost of the rescue that isn't covered falls to you. So in effect a Rega patronage also acts as a sort of gap-insurance.
Around 40% of the population are registered patrons of the Rega foundation. The cost for that is what benjirenji was actually referring to.
In Switzerland they deal with an endless line of brain-dead tourists that put themselves into stupid situations where helicopter evacuation is the only option, so I can kinda understand that they'd put some stuff in place to prevent people from abusing that.
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I once went on a trip to Atacama and as a responsible person got insurgence that specifically covered rescue above 5000m. When I got there locals told me that there are actually no rescue teams there or anything.
I once went on a trip to Atacama and as a responsible person got insurgence that specifically covered rescue above 5000m. When I got there locals told me that there are actually no rescue teams there or anything.
Not sure i would trust insurgents with that task...
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He was a nurse to. Which just makes him more aware of how things like that can just ruin a person in the us. Remember when that hospital took away healthcare benefits from its janitorial staff. That to me is peak us explanations. A hospital can't afford to give its staff health insurance. ugh.
This article reads like health insurance propaganda. It’s all about how selfless this guy is, and never talks about how insane it is that he had to risk death to avoid crippling medical debt.
Where I am in New York it's a little weird. There's one private helicopter that costs a lot for rescue and a police helicopter that's free. Also if it's just the rangers that come up to save you, that's also free. But the ambulance ride will bankrupt you.
I've even heard of a guy who will hike up a mountain, call 911 saying he's dehydrated and will wait for the rangers to carry him down, only to be fine at the bottom. (He's done it twice)
Second time he should be beaten so hard he's dehydrated from blood loss.
I’ve even heard of a guy who will hike up a mountain, call 911 saying he’s dehydrated and will wait for the rangers to carry him down, only to be fine at the bottom. (He’s done it twice)
But, why?
Sociopath, fetish, or both.
Ive heard of helicopter rescue insurance in the United states. Last i looked into it (15 years ago) it was around $50 per year. Considering the fact that ive heard more than one story of people getting themselves out of the backcountry with terrible injuries, i think it would be a good investment for anyone navigating privatized healthcare while enjoying outdoor sports.
Ok, the headline leaves out the little detail that the hiker is a trained nurse, which was able to self-assess that if he wasn't dying already, that he has been fucking lucky with the path through the body.
But in every other civilized country they wouldn't have to be able to self-assess something like that, they would call emergency services instead of gambling with the possibility that some nicked artery or a wounded organ gets worse because of the trek - especially the path out on the lower back just screams "kidney injury" or "danger to the blood supply of that kidney".
I know a lot of nurses and I've been an EMT for getting close to 20 years.
The self assessment was "I can breathe. I can walk. I can not afford a $30,000 helicopter ride"
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This is, in fact, what every country (civilised or not, I'm not gonna be the one handing out civilisation membership cards) does in these cases.
It’s interesting they mention paying for a helicopter. Not sure how that works both in the US and in other “civilized” countries.
But I suppose tax paying people need to decide on how to deploy emergency services. One could say if you take on the risk of climbing a 12,000 foot mountain, then you should be responsible for paying for your rescue. (Btw the article doesn’t directly quote him as saying he didn’t want to pay. Also there are other factors like you are then endangering the lives of the rescuers and possibly other hikers by bringing in a helicopter in such terrain.) Of course then there are people who would say if society doesn’t cover the cost of such a rescue, then only the wealthy will be able to “go on such adventures” or “do stupid shit” depending on your take on the activity. (See for example climbing Mt Everest.)
So it was an interesting choice of the author to put that “pay for” phrase in there. Meanwhile people who get cancer through no fault of their own also cannot get treatment they can’t afford.
But anyway yeah that dude is lucky he is a nurse.
I live in Austria, we have our fair share of mountains. If it is a medical emergency like in this case, you won't get a bill. If you get surprised by a sudden weather swing that wasn't forseeable, you won't get a bill. If you are a stupid tourist wearing flipflops and getting lost in the dark on the mountaintop, you will have to pay. So personal responsibility is still there, but only as far as it could be expected from someone trekking onto a mountain.
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That's stupid, emergency services should not come at a cost. If it were a hiker needing to be rescued because they were stupid and didn't prepare properly charge them. If it's an unforseen emergency than provide it as a service.
I'm surprised the cops don't charge money for showing up to calls, or the firefighters. Why is the medical field so different?
Because most of it is privatized.
I mean... damn, the US is not a real place
I'm all for universal health care. But at the same time being outdoors/hiking/fishing most of my life.
Some of the insanely stupid shit I've seen people do in the middle of fucking no where...
I mean accidents happen, but if you're that idiot that ignored four warnings and got gored trying to pet a bison, part of me thinks you SHOULD have to pay for that helicopter ride
There should be consequences, sure, but life long financial ruin isn't exactly a punishment that fits the crime here.
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People are just ok with this. It's so bizarre.
Article doesn't show image. Disappointed.
Not that gruesome but don't try that at home. Call an Uber.
Look up the cost of life flight. It’s often an entirely separate insurance (ask).
The majority of people don’t understand that there are levels to hospitals. Couple lives near a hospital in a beautiful though remote coastal location, thinks they have it figured out. Oh, but it’s a level 3 hospital. Not many surgeons, just one bone doctor.
One of them has a stroke. Now they need level 1-2, depending. Time is a critical factor, so, life flight. Ditto for a heart attack.
Last check it’s ~$50-60k.
Saw a thread where a father got a 100k bill for a life flight his son needed. Insurance didn't want to pay because they didn't preapprove but it was an emergency so there was no time anyway.
I'm just wondering why every thing in the medical field immediately costs 10x as much as it needs to. Yes, helicopters are expensive to maintain and so is the personnel but 100k per flight is ridiculous. Show me the calculation.
The calculation is, "We have you over a barrel so get fucked, you poor." I took a helicopter flight over Lake Tahoe just for the hell of it earlier this year. The total duration was probably similar to a flight from anywhere within those mountains to the local hospital and in fact we flew right by the hospital when we were still in town. The total cost was a couple of hundred bucks. This was from a private operator, so the profit from that cost had to include his own fuel and time, insurance, plus financing and maintaining his own machine, plus whatever it costs to stable it at the airport. Nobody is subsidizing him, and no municipality is giving him a cushy tax break, either.
So there's no way in any rational universe that a helicopter flight to the hospital should cost more than a thousand, maybe two thousand dollars even accounting for the payroll of everyone on that bird and all the other expenses, plus a fat 200% profit margin.
I'm just wondering why every thing in the medical field immediately costs 10x as much as it needs to.
Because capitalism.
Right? I had an MRI to check on my ear. It took 30-40min all said and done. $28k. 100% covered by insurance.
That tech is getting paid $60-$75/hr. There’s the machine, which is always on. Then there’s the doc who reads it. Some paperwork filings in the chart.
That’s probably 1hr of tech pay, after cleaning / set up. Radiologists make ~$300/hr per salary on average.
So, after the $375 for hands on personnel, and the electric bill, I don’t know what whimsy created the $27,625.
Per the search bot, 165-226 kWh per day for the MRI being on.
Looks like Daniel a guy I knew from a few jobs back.
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