Uninsured Man takes 600 Free Ambulance Rides at Taxpayer expense...(Drudge Headline)

wgrz news via Drudge Report ^ | 7-3--09 | Andrew Pierrotti

[rawhide]

If it's a medical emergency, Erie County 911 will respond, but there is one address many of its dispatchers know by heart.

They find Scott Graham usually waiting at that Buffalo address for his ambulance several times a week.

"Sometimes two times a day," Graham told 2 On Your Side. He suffers from Sickle Cell Anemia, a blood disorder. If left untreated, it can block blood flow to limbs and organs.

"It feels like somebody shooting me with battery acid, and I'm stepping on razor blades, and I'm having a heart attack at once," he said talking about the pain the disorder causes.

Graham doesn't have a job, insurance or car. So, when he feels bad, he doesn't call a cab. He calls 911 to have an ambulance drive him to the hospital.

A 2 On Your Side investigation found that from January 2006 to May of this year, Rural Metro Ambulance picked him up 603 times.

Medicaid picked up the tab for each ride, costing taxpayers at least $118,158.

Graham estimates he's requested even more rides. "I'd say about a thousand times."

[rawhide]

His trips cost Medicaid $118,000, but the government reimbursements are low. In fact, most ambulance companies lose money, up to 30% or more, when they transport Medicaid patients, because the government simply does not pay the full cost. Therefore, Mr. Graham's actual cost to the ambulance company and to the health care system in general, is much more, as high as $360,000.

Your tax dollars at work.

[NoLibZone]

California State Prisons frequently use Mercy air, at a cost of 28K each ride , to transport ( Hold For INS Inmates ) Illegals to Trauma centers.

[The Raven]

I heard of this same problem in Chicago. But not just one person. It’s routine.

[JoeDetweiler]

Agreed....there was an article a few years ago in Oakland that said these guys know exactly when to call for the ambulance so as to arrive at meal time..........

[Fresh Wind]

No wonder California’s broke.

For that kind of money, they can fly them back to Mexico.

[BigCinBigD]

Obviously the hospital is practicing catch and release.

[BullDog108]

For that kind of money, they can fly them back to Mexico.

Or better yet, halfway back and shove them out at 40,000'.

[/ sarc]

[Doogle]

...with the discovery of Prof.Gates “close relationship” to
Odumbo, would anyone be 100% sure that Scott Graham isn't a friend of Odumbo?

[DainBramage]

Here its called “free ride to the south side”.

[kindred]

This is the type of abuse the Congress never has fixed and is the reason we are getting government care shoved down our throats.
The democrats and rinos of D.C. are totally out of control!

[chadwimc]

I see “yoots” drug into the emergency room every night I work. None are ever refused service which includes state of the art trauma care for gunshot wounds. None are ever expected to pay, either...

[RU88]

I suppose Obamacare will cap this unfortunate soul at the kneecaps, give him a bottle of pain pills and write him off. Nah, that will only happen to grammy and gramps.

[livius]

A family member worked as a paramedic in an area with a large welfare ghetto, and the people who lived there would call an ambulance for a runny nose. The state welfare department offered them cab vouchers to go to hospitals or clinics in non-emergency situations (such as routine dialysis), but they didn’t want that. They wanted to go in the ambulance, and they would demand it and couldn’t be turned down.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

This kind of routine abuse is included in the one sixth of the economy spent on purported “health care”. Once gold plated cab rides become heath care expenses, everything is a health care expense. Couldn’t they slap this guy in jail when he abused 911? No phones in the cells.

[raybbr]

We had an idiot Human Resources director that wanted to have a taxi company on call for “minor” accidents where I worked to take people to the emergency room. Luckily he was shot down.

[Leisler]

EMS, unions and the security bureaucrats love this, just love it.

It keeps them in jobs.

By the way, people were killed to pay the taxes to pay to save this guy.

Construction workers have to work longer, later, in worse whether to pay taxes. Trucker have to drive more, longer in weather they dislike to pay their taxes. Small businesspeople die at their desks from stress, wearing three hats at their little business to find the money for taxes. Poor working class drive beater cars with marginal brakes, tires, to second jobs to pay taxes.

Tax paid services may save, but working to pay taxes kill people each and every day.

[6ppc]

Yesterday on one of the talk shows (I think it was Boortz) a man from Canada called in. The only way he can see a doctor quickly is to call an ambulance to take him to the emergency room. Problem is, lots of other people are catching on to the trick so it’s getting harder to get an ambulance.

[PapaBear3625]

A family member worked as a paramedic in an area with a large welfare ghetto, and the people who lived there would call an ambulance for a runny nose.

A $50 charge per ride, deducted automatically from their next welfare check, would end that real fast.

[JimRed]

Wouldn’t it be cheaper to put him in a home for the chronically sick? (Nursing home is an out-of-favor label in our neighborhood)

[Vaduz]

If they transported Illegals to Trauma centers in Mexico I wouldn’t have a problem with it.