Cities With Uber Have Lower Rates Of Ambulance Usage (npr.org)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Many potential emergency room patients are too sick to drive themselves to a hospital. But an ambulance can cost hundreds or thousands of dollars without insurance. This where a popular ride-sharing app can step in, while also freeing up the ambulances for those who need them most. With demand for ambulances decreased by available Uber drivers, emergency personnel have been able reach critical patients faster while also applying necessary treatment on the way to the hospital, according to a new economic study from the University of Kansas: "Given that even a reduction of a few minutes can drastically improve survival rates for serious conditions, this could be associated with a substantial welfare improvement." The study investigated ambulance rates in 766 U.S. cities from 43 different states. Taking into account the timelines of when Uber entered each city, the researchers found that the app reduced per capita ambulance usage rates by around 7 percent.

Comments

Re:Interesting.

[PsychoSlashDot]

We have Socialized medicine in the United States, We buy insurance. where we pay for everyone on that companies healthcare.

You don't, really.

See, with socialized health care, there isn't a company involved. There's a government-run health organization which exists to serve people, not to make a profit. How you pay for it isn't key. How the services are delivered is.

I know there's a hypothetical where it's asked, "well, what if I want to pay more for service which is even better" and it's not a horrible question, but it presupposes that the baseline health-care is sub-par, which is - in most cases - not the case. Yes, here in Canada we've had periods where emergency-room wait times have been excessive, but with triage, true emergencies are handled immediately while "I've got a cough" is back-burnered. As it should be. And yes, there are occasions where some specific procedures are back-logged, and patients are even sometimes shuttled to our nearby American neighbors because they needed to be. But by and large, the vast, vast, majority of us are cared-for properly, promptly, efficiently, and... with disregard for the depth of our pockets.