Cost of ambulance ride drops

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This article was published 02/04/2019 (2574 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As of yesterday, Manitobans taking an ambulance trip to the ER will pay less for the service.

The cost will drop from $340 per ride to a maximum of $250, the provincial government announced in a press release Monday.

The cheaper cost will positively impact those living in the Westman area, said Heather Peters, executive director of Brandon Seniors for Seniors.

“Any reduction in medical services (costs) that are emergent or urgent is the right way to go,” she said. “I think things by choice are one thing to have a high fee, but for emergent or urgent medical care, there should be a reasonable cost to it, reasonable to the average person and to someone on pension.”

Fees have been reduced consistently since 2016. Three years ago, Manitoba had one of the highest ambulance fees in the country, and they’ve since been cut in half. Back in 2016, an ambulance ride cost an average of $500. In 2017, that was reduced to $425, then $340 in 2018 and $250 this year.

A higher cost may have prevented the most vulnerable people who needed the service from using it, Peters said.

“They may say ‘Oh no, I’ll wait, I’ll get my daughter to take me,’ and maybe it’s something that should have been looked at sooner rather than waiting.’”

Between April 1, 2017 and March 31, 2018, paramedics within Prairie Mountain Health responded to 22,366 incidents, according to statistics provided by a Prairie Mountain Health spokesperson. That number includes inter-facility transports and 911 calls, and patients who were treated in the home by paramedics and didn’t require transport to hospital.

Catheryn Pederson, chair of the Prairie Mountain Health board of directors, declined comment on the story, saying to reach out to the Prairie Mountain Health communications department. PMH spokespeople, in turn, deferred to the province for comment.

With an aging population, the need for emergency services is going to increase as time goes on, Health, Seniors and Active Living Minister Cameron Friesen said. A reduced cost to take an ambulance will help people get to the hospital who need it.

“We wanted to make sure that there were Manitobans who were in a potentially life-threatening situation who weren’t spending their time worrying whether they could afford or not to phone for help,” Friesen said.

It will benefit people across the province, he said, especially older adults, seniors and people on a fixed income.

The $90 reduction will mean people in the Westman area pay the lowest ambulance fees among all the Prairie provinces. In Alberta, it costs $385, and in Saskatchewan, a basic pickup rate ranges from $245 to $325, plus a per kilometre rate for rural residents to transfer into larger centres.

In the process to reduce the fees, government officials have spoken to people across the province about their own experiences accessing health care.

“We’ve heard stories from real Manitobans who were in the process of needing medical help and chose instead of phoning for an ambulance to try and get themselves to a hospital to forgo the charge,” Friesen said. “We don’t want anybody to be in the situation where they’re having to choose between phoning 911 and trying to get themselves to the hospital.”

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