Ambulances start charging extra for obese patients

Hooray! But still not enough. (Why? Read on. I added the links in the quoted portions of the article.)

"As the nation battles the obesity crisis, ambulance crews are trying to improve how they transport extremely heavy patients, who become significantly more difficult to move as they surpass 350 pounds. And caring for such patients is expensive, requiring costly equipment and extra workers, so some ambulance companies have started charging higher fees for especially overweight people.

The move to modify ambulances is just the latest effort to accommodate plus-sized patients. Some hospitals already offer specially designed beds, wheelchairs, walkers and even commodes. (and here, too.)

Ambulance companies say it's time for insurance providers, Medicaid and Medicare, or patients themselves to begin paying the added costs, which are cutting into their razor-thin profit margins.

In the past, ambulance companies often absorbed the extra expense of serving the obese."

Probably not true.

They probably passed the costs on to the calorically responsible.

Now is the time for payback, i.e,. for fatsos to pay their fair share.

But look at the numbers:

"Transporting extremely heavy people costs about 2 1/2 times as much as normal-weight patients. It takes more time to move them and requires three to four times more crew members, who often must use expensive specialty equipment, Buell said.

Keller, now an operations manager for the American Medical Response unit in Topeka, successfully petitioned the Shawnee County Commission last summer to raise ambulance fees from $629 to $1,172 for critical-care patients and people who are 500 pounds or heavier.

In Colorado Springs, Colo., and the Nebraska cities of Omaha and Lincoln, the fees are $1,421 for an extremely obese patient, compared with $758 for a typical patient."

The differentials are not even twice as much.

Simply put, it is not enough so the rest of us are still paying for the calorically irresponsible.

"Some critics say the higher fees are a form of discrimination.

'Ambulance services are a critical public service and should accommodate the needs of all of those who require them at a fair cost,' said Joseph Nadglowski, president of the Obesity Action Coalition, a group that advocates for the obese.

Higher payments for heavy patients are commonplace in Oregon and Washington because the insurance industry there acknowledges the additional costs, said Liz Merritt, a spokeswoman for Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Rural/Metro Corporation, an ambulance provider.

Ambulance companies say the insurance industry is their best hope for closing the financial gap."

Two important points re: "discrimination."

1. It is not discrimination to charge more for what costs more.
2. F**k you.

And insurers should refuse to pay more unless they collect higher premiums to offset the costs.

Otherwise the rest of us still end up paying for the brontosapiens.

Don't let that happen.