Amazing that they thought they'd be charged for a rescue. Even more amazing that they cared. If I needed a helicopter rescue out of some place, and a helicopter showed up to rescue me, I get on even if I knew for a fact that it did cost money and that I didn't have any way to pay. I'd just hop on and deal with the consequences later, assuming that I wouldn't be thrown in jail or anything for just getting on a chopper without fare in order to save myself. Obviously these folks have a greater respect for such things than I do.
or they have experienced being in heavy debt, after having done what you describe.
Well, it isn't a far-fetched idea. An ambulance ride costs you in most places, so why not a helicopter rescue?
I'd never think twice about calling an ambulance (or riding in one myself) if it were needed -- but I have insurance AND even if I couldn't pay necessary copays and such my family certainly could.
How frightening this situation must be on so many levels for these people. I'm also wondering how many of them have really been outside their local area before. That could be another pretty scary thing to deal with, leaving all that you've known (even if it has become hell on Earth).
On other ugly things coming this way, see The Trib, Atrios, HuffPo, and Corrente. In three months, once everyone on the Right has forgiven the Administration, this is going to be really, really awful.
Also, this: Michael Froomkin has a link to an NPR segment recording [Barbara Bush's] comments. She actually said, "What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they want to stay."
i saw the corrente post yesterday, and it made me bang my fists in anger. and i'm not an angry person. people's attitudes are sickening - and i am so pissed about the motels and hotels in florida who kicked people out because it was Time For Football. fuckers.
SomeCallMeTim,
I heard that segment, and it floored me. Atrios quoted from the transcript too. The line that really bothered me was not the one you mentioned, but this one: "And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle)--this is working very well for them."
These people have just lost everything they had, and she said that.
Point of interest: When rich yuppies decide to brave the wilderness and get hopelessly stranded on a remote mountainside somewhere, it is becoming increasingly common to bill them for the very high cost of a helicopter rescue.
Tito, I have to assume that these people did not expect to be allowed onto the helicopters unless they were able to pay up in advance.
You have to pay for your ambulance rides?
This is a joke, right. This comes right after the bit where the good samaritan leant over the bloodied ruins of the traveller and asked what his credit cards were. Right?
Well, it's not like you have to give them money to get on the ambulance; it's something sorted out later, I think. Not that that's always a plus, but at least you'll get to the hospital.
Yeah, so it's like that bit in Ghostbusters.
"$5000? I had no idea it would be so much. I won't pay."
"Oh, that's OK, sir, we can just throw you right back in the water."
Paying for ambulance rides? Your country is very sick.
Arguing over whether poor people could have left the city had they wanted to is something of a red herring. It's like refusing to pull a man out of a pit, because he ought to have been more careful in the first place.
Total fuckers.
Years ago where I grew up each family had to pay a village tax. It covered garbage removal, leaf removal in the fall and ambulance service.
Now where I live we can't have any of that. Oh, no. Everyone must pay separately for each of those. God forbid you ever need to use the helicopter ambulance. That runs in the thousands, maybe tens of thousands just for the ride.
What text said about debt.
As an aside, it may be that the institutionalization of a second-class-citizen mentality among our nation's poorest is the greatest obstacle to real social mobility in America. Put another way: for decades, our government's actions have been conditioning large segments of Americans to believe that the "American Dream" doesn't apply to them, and it never will.
Also see: the "Two Americas" stuff. Especially w/r/t public education.
I'm upper middle class, but after the mess that came from sorting out my one and only ambulance ride (which was not strictly necessary) I must say I cringe at needing one and don't trust myself not to refuse one if I can walk.
In America, generally speaking, if you have a valid medical problem that needs emergency treatment and you can't reasonably get yourself to the emergency room, you can call 911 for an ambulance, and it will come and take you to a hospital.
If you're on Medicaid or Medicare or have health insurance that covers it, they'll, generally speaking, take care of it. If you're indigent, but not on any of the above rolls, or in some State program (of which there are innumerable variants), you might or might be billed on paper, but since you're indigent, it doesn't matter, since your credit record is already putrid and you have no credit; it might cause you a problem in the future if applying for credit, but if you wait enough time, that won't matter, either.
If you're not indigent, lack insurance, and can pay for it, you may be billed, weeks or months later. And, y'know, the money helps support free care, within limits, for the indigent.
I have problems with the system. But it's not exactly pure Hobbesianism.
Re 8: Back country skiers must pay for their rescues. Which usually involves helicopters. And sometimes a morgue. For which the next-of-kin is billed.
I think that's Ok if you have to pay for ambulance rides. There should be exceptions, of course... However, the age of free medicinr is gone. Unfortunately, practice has proven that "free" means with no interest and no responsibility.