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Passengers Who Call Uber Instead Of An Ambulance Put Drivers At Risk (buzzfeed.com)
Sick people are increasingly using ride-hail to get to the emergency room, putting drivers in an uncomfortable position and a potentially tricky legal bind, BuzzFeed News reports. From the report: Mike Fish was driving for Uber 10 minutes outside of Boston when he picked up a second passenger in his Uber Pool who, he said, seemed "out of it, drowsy -- almost sedated." When the drowsy passenger asked him if Boston's Mass General hospital was the nearest emergency room, "that set off a red flag," Fish told BuzzFeed News. "I said, 'Do you need the ER?' He said yes. It came out that, over the last few days, he'd been passing out and losing consciousness." But instead of calling an ambulance to get the urgent medical attention he needed, the sick passenger called an Uber Pool. The shared ride would save him a few bucks, but it meant he'd have to wait for Fish to drop off the first passenger before he'd get to the ER. "I was a little nervous," Fish said. "I didn't know what was going to happen."
Ride-hail drivers are, by and large, untrained, self-employed workers driving their own cars on a part-time basis. They're not medical professionals. But as health care costs have risen and ride-hail has become more pervasive, people are increasingly relying on Uber and Lyft drivers to get them to the hospital when they need emergency care. A recent (yet to be peer-reviewed) study found that, after Uber enters new markets, the rates of ambulance rides typically go down, meaning fewer people call professionals in favor of the cheaper option.
Ride-hail drivers are, by and large, untrained, self-employed workers driving their own cars on a part-time basis. They're not medical professionals. But as health care costs have risen and ride-hail has become more pervasive, people are increasingly relying on Uber and Lyft drivers to get them to the hospital when they need emergency care. A recent (yet to be peer-reviewed) study found that, after Uber enters new markets, the rates of ambulance rides typically go down, meaning fewer people call professionals in favor of the cheaper option.
I'm a UK resident, and with the goverments campaign of saving money by shutting essential services, it may be a case that an Uber ride will get me to the nearest hospital much quicker than an actual ambulance. Heck, the bus might be quicker.
If you gave me a choice between a printer and a giraffe with explosive diarrhoea, i'll get my ladder and my raincoat
Is the incidence of use "ride sharing" (Uber/Lyft/etc) over medical transport higher than say a cab?
If not, this is a non-issue.
At least in Canada there is a good chance your driver is a doctor from the Caribbean or Eastern Europe. Our Ambulance service is pretty good here in Canada but you would be shocked at how many Uber drivers are doctors from poorer countries.
In the USA, if you call an ambulance, it will come pick you no matter what even if you don't have the ability to pay.
This is not true in Michigan where I live for residential addresses. If that address has an unpaid bill sent to collections they won't respond unless you can prove you are not the same resident. I live in an apartment complex and had to call EMS once and spent ~5 minutes on the phone confirming that I was not the former resident who had an unpaid bill. That's some seriously fucked up shit right there. I'm just lucky the delay in dispatching a unit wasn't life threatening. That time.
Strat
Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
I think you are the one being lied to, and not by the AC above you but by your insurer. When ACA was enacted, my employer provided coverage was very good, but not fully compliant either. Nope, it too had some nitpick detail that the plan didn't cover something. Specifically, it did not provide free preventative care visits, or free birth control.
It really sucked when my plan was cancelled because of that. Oh wait, I forgot...it wasn't cancelled. The next time the plan renewed annually, they added an additional rider to the policy (every policy has tons of those) which provided those services at no cost. There was nothing stopping your insurer from slightly altering the coverage terms to make it compliant. They just didn't want to. Why? Most likely they saw it as a chance to jack up rates and pad their profits while saying "sorry, wasn't us....Obamacare".