Florida County Spends Tens Of Thousands

[lostinblue 1,989]

Florida County Spends Tens Of Thousands On Ambulance For Obese Patients

March 29, 2013 12:50 PM

(CBS Tampa) — The Orange County Fire and Rescue spends tens of thousands of dollars for an ambulance to transport patients that weigh up to 1,100 pounds.

Central Florida News 13 reports that the ambulance was purchased after emergency responders had to transport at least two dozen patients who weighed more than 500 pounds last year.

“With some of these morbidly obese patients, we have to send more firefighters just to lift and to move the patient. So once they’re in and we get them to the hospital, someone has to be at the hospital to unload them,” one Orange County fire official told News 13. “That’s pulling a lot of resources from emergency calls just to do that.”

Orange County paid $23,000 alone for the lift gate and stretcher and the stretcher is 10 inches wider than the average one.

“In the past you’d have to get five, six, seven firefighters to physically lift the patient in. It increases the chance that something could happen to the patient,” a fire official told News 13. “It also greatly increases the chance that something could happen with back injuries within fire services.”

The ambulance dubbed Bariatric Unit One made its first successful run Tuesday.

http://tampa.cbslocal.com/2013/03/29/florida-county-spends-tens-of-thousands-on-ambulance-for-obese-patients/

How do we as a nation come to terms that the health care problem (cost).What we have in this country is for the most part is caused by overweight people. My line of thinking is if you smoke then you should pay more for health insurance..then if you are overweight then you also should pay more. Lets say $10/pound per year.After a year or two raise it to $20 or 30....Give America a chance to lose weight. Their are hundreds of thousands of studies been done to show that being overweight is damaging to your health. Lower health cost ..lower the weight and get fit.When I work out in my local gym I would say over 2/3 of the population attending are very overweight. I have a friend who is like this and she said it is hard to walk into a fitness center and work out ....there is shame in how she looks. This person has put on over 100+ in the last 10 years. I said keep going and don't worry what people think. It is for your own good. We as a nation just want to throw the pills at the problem and not tackle the hard answers. We are lazy as a whole population.Reach for the chips and turn on the TV rather than get into shape.

[himher 634]

Seems the cheapest thing would be to just deny people who can't control their weight health care altogether unless they can walk in and pay for it out of pocket. And smokers. And drinkers. People who have heart problems - it's their fault, they don't exercise enough. OH OH cancer patients. They should have avoided carcinogens. AIDs patients. Should have known better than to tramp around town pitching and catching. Who else? Old people. Everyone dies, why take on the extra cost of extending their lives?

Hell expand your plan to all chronically sick people and just cover accidents and acute sicknesses that have nothing to do with lifestyle.

You could save billions that way.

Edited April 20, 2013 by himher