72 points

A few years ago I had to get picked up by an ambulance, and got to pay $500 for the privilege.

That was the cost with insurance, and my job actually has pretty good insurance…

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49 points

If I have a heart attack, I’ll be calling an uber first

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64 points

True story. I have delivered to the ER no less than two people having a heart attack in an Uber while I worked driving Uber. Both of them literally said the same thing, that it was too expensive for an ambulance and it was much cheaper for an Uber. The second one we even pulled up next to an ambulance and the guy hollered out the window and the ambulance said we can’t do anything. You just need to follow us to the hospital.

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44 points

That people normalize this is maddening.

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14 points

You’re making that up, right?
This is from an 80s movie about a distopian future (like RoboCop or Total Recall), right!?

I mean, do you stop at red lights in that situation? You probably have to… Do you keep the speed limit and have some small talk with the guy fighting for his life, while you sit in traffic?

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3 points

A few years ago I had to get picked up by an ambulance, and got to pay $500 for the privilege.

Under capitalism there are no freedoms, only privileges.

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3 points

how much did your insurance cover? I mean ambulances are free where I live, but it would be excusable if it costs like 600$ (don’t get me wrong, that’s still terrible)

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7 points

I don’t have the invoice anymore but I think it said it was around $1300

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4 points

That’s a little less than what my primary charged my insurance for an office visit in 2022. Including $200 for a mental health screening that, offense intended to the well known institution that runs the office, was worthless and unnecessary because I’ve already received actual professional help for that and I know what it looks like, thanks.

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6 points

A friend of mine recently had to call an ambulance and he had to pay 3k. He has insurance.

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55 points

The hilarious thing is, in the movie that very same guy got run over and then he sued for a ton of money which allowed him to retire. The American dream!

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2 points

I thought he got money because he took the money the other guys were skimming.

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16 points

Wrong guy. Milton stole the money as he was burning the building down, Tom (this guy) was going to unalive himself in the garage, his wife caught him, and then got hit by a drunk driver when he pulled out of the garage to make it look like he wasn’t trying to unalive himself.

(Before anyone says it, I know I’m on Lemmy and don’t need to use “unalive,” but it’s habit now from the dark places…)

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47 points

Good luck emigrating unless you can afford those countries that let you buy residency.

Props to anyone who has successfully moved to another country because eegads that is not an easy or quick process.

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19 points

Americans can come to my country with few limitations (Canada), and it shouldn’t be overly hard to get either dual citizenship or to become a Canadian citizen. Our immigration policies are not nearly as strict as other places and we have a gigantic, and mostly undefended border with the USA. Little more than border guards stand in the way, and as long as you’re not a felon, and you have a legitimate reason to enter the country, you’re welcome here.

We have universal healthcare available to all citizens.

Once here it’s a matter of getting an employer who will sponsor your work visa… Then it’s a pretty clear path to citizenship from there.

We’re not super different from the USA. More taxes, no guns. Some other differences. But we’re like… America lite.

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8 points

The news I see over there is that the housing market is even more fucked than the US one, though? Do people mostly rent?

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9 points

Unless you want to live in a tiny rural town, housing prices are generally pretty fucked.

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2 points

We paid over $700k CAD for a ~3000 sq ft home that’s about 20 minute drive from a major city.

Most places are similar from what I know. A new build up the street from us is asking 1.5m CAD for something much smaller.

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1 point

i’ve been tempted by the prospect of a dual citizenship with canada honestly, not even for the services, i just want to go north and get the fuck away from people lol.

The no guns thing is kind of cringe, but i could live with it.

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2 points

No guns is a bit of an over simplification.

You can have guns for hunting, it’s regulated and there’s a bunch of rules surrounding it. But nobody is openly carrying them around Walmart or anything.

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One of my colleagues is a British man who just gained his US citizenship in 2021. He’s been here since 2007 on a marriage visa. And prior to that, he has described the immigration process as “arduous.”

And getting married is apparently the easy way to get in.

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-16 points

Also the US is notoriously easier to get into than almost any other country

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8 points
*

Haha, what do you base that on?!

My experience is the exact opposite. I’m a software engineer at a big tech company, and in this climate even they are unable to sponsor a visa to the US from the UK. Literally anywhere else? Sure, no problem at all, whether it be Europe, Singapore, China, Japan, Egypt, Australia, anywhere we have an office - except America.

Americans, welcome anywhere! We’ve got two in my team alone this year, and in 5 years they can get permanent residency. I know managers that want me on their team because I built tooling for them, but they’re not allowed to hire me because it would require a visa…

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2 points

Might as well make it easy for hospitals to milk more people

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5 points

It’s all about working for a global company and getting their sponsorship to move out of the US. Working on it currently with my company to take over an APAC team

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3 points

I’ll let anyone buy a Finnish residency. Just pay me a to-be-agreed-upon sum and then we’ll get married and it should be quite a done deal. Perhaps need to keep addresses the same on paper for a few years but that’s it.

Hit me with them offers.

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1 point

You’re too geographically close to Russia.

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2 points

Unless you’re a spy who ran from Russia (and basically not even then, as we have supo), why would that matter?

Unlike the US, Finland has and continues to successfully avoid Russia meddling in it’s affairs.

We got labour protection, social security and have among other things, fixed homelessness.

Yes, there’s a lot of issues as well, but compared to other countries, I’d say the average person is fairly well off in Finland in terms of financial security. Mental health is a whole other matter, though.

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2 points

They are part of NATO now, so they’re safe

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44 points

Same, except:

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5 points
*

“Wish George Carlin” ↑ needed more work

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32 points
*

Having a long term condition since youth, it’s amazing how many people my points about the US healthcare system seemed to simply… Bounce off.

Only now are they getting it 😑

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