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Comment by ashtonian | Hacker News Reader

Lol worth 100k?

Yes. Nobody in Europe can even believe that things like ambulance rides could be anything but free. Those stories sound like depressing dystopia from a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie.

For nearly all US tech. workers an ambulance ride will be free or a nominal deductible.

Wait, what? No. That is definitely not true. We have very good insurance, and every ambulance ride has cost a fortune.

You have insurance where an ambulance ride doesn’t just apply to your deductible?

I believe it but have never had an insurance plan like that.

I've had insurance from Arbor (Blue Cross) pre-ACA, from Erin's job at the Latin School (Blue Cross) pre-ACA, from Matasano (United), from BCBS on the ACA marketplace (and now at Fly, but that doesn't matter b/c...) and ambulance trips in all 4 of those, and all of them cost a fortune.

Later

Erin also points out that beyond the deductible cost, your ambulance has to be in-network, or it's not covered at all --- that bit our family too.

I'm a defender of our insurance system, weird as that sounds, but even I won't try to stick up for how we handle ambulances.

The ambulance rates where I live (Vancouver, BC, Canada) always make me blink:

Insured: $50 flat rate, ground or air.

Uninsured:

$848 flat fee (ground service)

$4,394 per hour (helicopter)

http://www.bcehs.ca/about/billing/fees

The swiss right in the center of europe can very well imagine

https://www.srf.ch/news/schweiz/2500-franken-fuer-62-kilomet...

If you think only about yourself, of course not. If you think about your family, like your children and grandchildren that may not work in IT or a similar well paying industry, then it starts to become worth it. You know they will have an acceptable quality of life whatever happens. Years after your death.

Of course you can work a few years in California and move back to Europe. It takes some courage and a lot of people prefer to not move abroad.

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