Comments on: The Tattlesnake – More Scenes from the Neocon Paradise Edition

By: RS Janes

RS Janes — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 13:23:55 +0000

In my area, the ambulance and EMT’s come right away, but then they add it to your hospital bill later. Currently, they are required by law to respond immediately, regardless of your economic status. So, Grim, it presently is a mix between private and public around here, if you can get Medicare/Medicaid to pay for your ambulance service later. (Not guaranteed these days.)

However, privatizers would like to change this and make ambulance companies and EMT’s available only to those who can pay upfront. None of them has yet said what happens to those who have no money, but a neocon I once talked to about this subject said, “They should have thought of that before they had the emergency,” so I guess that means if you’re poor, you die.

America used to be a humanitarian nation; still is, in some parts.

By: Danger Bear

Danger Bear — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:49:39 +0000

Nice post RS. There is a good way to maximize corporate profit from a situation like this much the way some privatized abulance companies do already.

Leaving Mr. and Mrs Smith on the side of the road is bad PR. An emergency response company can come to the rescue and then stick Smith with an inflated itemized bill. More money can be made selling his debt to collection agencies and if this bankrupts the Smith household you can sell his personal information. The tertiary possibilites are endless.

Grim, one way to create a balance between public and private sectors is to ensure that essential social services like defense, health care, and utilities are not run on a profit-before-people basis.

By: grimgold

grimgold — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 17:08:16 +0000

Gee… sounds like a good balance between the public and private sector would be worth advocating for.