At the risk of getting myself a rain of downvotes here:

An ambulance is an expensive and somewhat rare mini-ER on wheels that's designed to help a small team of expensive and somewhat rare specialists stabilize a dangerous condition on a patient until it reaches a hospital. Since it is important to keep those somewhat rare vehicles and teams in reserve for when they are suddenly urgently needed, you really shouldn't use one as a taxi to the hospital if whatever your condition is doesn't call for that.

(Asking enormous sums of money of the patient for the privilege is IMHO still wrong. The decision to use an ambulance or not should not be based on whether you can can easily part with a couple thousand dollars.)

Exactly, its your personal free ride. Not like a taxi at all.

Usually more 3-5,000 for the ride. More medicine extra but most ambulance rides dont need extra.

Also somehow the paramedics doing the care are getting like minimum wage...its such a scam.

I checked and 2 years ago the average cost was indeed about $1400:

https://www.ems1.com/billing-and-administration/u-s-has-most-expensive-ambulance-billing-international-analysis-finds

Probably more now, although I doubt 10× as much...

What

That's amazing.

Groundhog Day 2 is a bit grittier than the original.

Due to reasons I took an ambulance ride. For one and a half miles. From one hospital to another. They billed my insurance $6K

Honestly read it as 14,000 and didn't think twice until you corrected it.

Can be. The numbers are basically made up. It’s not uncommon for people to get their X-rays done at a chiropractor and take those to the Dr because it’s cheaper and insurance refuses to pay or it costs more even with insurance. I know someone who realized his wife’s insurance copay was more than if he paid cash for their kids birth. The insurance situation is insane and very complicated. Everything you hear about it is true and happens regularly. I tell people that I would rather have socialize medicine just for getting rid of the paperwork and nonsense. Unfortunately greed and racism are standing in the way.

$1400 is a wildly conservative estimate. In reality, it will be twice that.

There's a reason why people often opt for an Uber or just drive themselves to the hospital.

I made the mistake of calling for an ambulance once, and that's the day I learned that they are owned by private companies in the US. I couldn't afford the bill, so I had to put up with seven years of bad credit before the charge finally disappeared off my record and I was allowed to own a credit card and buy a vehicle without paying for it in full with cash.

On the bright side, weed is legal and abundant. And unlike in Amsterdam, you don't even have to smoke it because it comes in so many different forms! So instead of going to the doctor, I just drink and vape to my health.

God I hate living in this country.

When I was in college and on my own for the first time I tripped on the stairs and tore a ligament in my foot. I thought I'd broken something and the school called an ambulance. The ambulance drove me 1 mile to the hospital, where I was given an ice pack and crutches and then turned out with no way to get home (I had to hobble my way to a store to pull out cash to take a bus home).

This entire ordeal was $3000 after insurance. My mom then called me and bitched me out for not taking a taxi.

It's both heavily subsidised by the government and heavily regulated to ensure access to quality care.

For an otherwise healthy adult, you'd pay ~30% of the cost. BUT there are laws that ensure privately-run healthcare facilities can only charge the same amount as publicly-run ones. So even at full cost, these prices are very low compared to the US.

There are also caps on how much someone will spend in a month, so even long-lasting illnesses/disabilities won't bankrupt you.

A normal one. Not perfect, but not a bizarre torture device for anyone not deliriously wealthy