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Need an ambulance? If you're overweight it could cost you double!
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There are plenty of reasons to maintain a low carb lifestyle; to control your weight or lose weight, overall health, to correct specific health related issues, to help extend your life, or to get into those new jeans or a new bathing suit. How about eating low carb to lose weight to prevent additional charges in an emergency? New policies in the healthcare field are enforcing higher charges on extremely overweight patients for a ride to the hospital.
The challenge for paramedics transporting morbidly obese patients centers around the additional manpower needed to ensure safe travel for the patient. In extreme cases, there is a need for a larger ambulance or other vehicle. Reports put the cost of transporting a morbidly overweight person at about double (or more) that of a patient who is not overweight. Having previously been morbidly obese, in the back of my mind I always had a fear of what would happen if I fell or had to go to the hospital; who would help me and how many people would it take? Ambulance companies that aren't staffed to handle large patients rely on firefighters and other emergency workers when this need arises.
Until recently, ambulance companies have been absorbing the added cost of handling overweight patients but that is beginning to change. These companies are beginning to add on additional charges to cover their expenses much like would be done with an intensive care patient. I'm sure you can guess that in most cases the insurance companies will not cover the additional cost and pass this expense straight down to the patient.
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