Woman Shares The Staggering Bill She Received For Being Airlifted To The ER After Falling Out Of A Moving Vehicle — 'You Could Buy A Helicopter For That'
Being saddled with a five-figure bill while trying to recover is sadistic and inhumane.
Syda Productions | Canva Pro Those of us who live in the U.S. know that our for-profit healthcare system is ridiculously, often sadistically expensive, and makes little sense. But every now and then, a person comes forward with a story that throws it into even starker relief.
Such is the case with a woman who is recovering from a terrifying car accident. Now home from the hospital, the bills have begun arriving, and one of them has people astonished.
The woman received a nearly $70,000 bill for being airlifted to the ER in a helicopter following the car wreck.
"Just received my helicopter bill from being airlifted to the emergency room," Shauntay Aichner said in a video posted about her experience to TikTok. "The ride was like 15 minutes, maybe, if that."
She went on to say that she wasn't given any medication or medical attention while on the helicopter, "they literally just took me from point A to point B."
She said she knew the bill would be hefty — this is America, after all, and we've all heard a million of these stories by now. "I would think it'd be maybe a few thousand dollars," she said. "$20,000 is like the MAX… really pushing it." She then revealed the total she was given: $68,815.
Aichner is uninsured and was hospitalized following her harrowing accident.
"I don't have insurance," Aichner said in her video. "Keep that in mind. I don't have any insurance. $69,000." In her caption, she joked that it was "time to go to the military." However, in another cruel twist in the American system, some branches of the military will not allow those with medical debt to enlist.
In any case, Aichner's experience highlights the true absurdity and cruelty of the American healthcare system. In another video, she shared what happened to her.
She was riding along with her boyfriend on his package delivery job in a truck with no doors. The door to the back of the truck was open, so she got up to close it. When she sat back down, she lost her footing and fell out of the truck while they were driving on the freeway.
She suffered second-degree burns on several portions of her body, along with other injuries. Obviously, given the extremely urgent nature of the situation, airlifting her was the only option, and given the nature of traumatic injuries was probably unable to even communicate a different choice if she'd even been given one.
Obviously, her accident was the result of hazardous risk-taking, and many will surely blame her for her own situation because of it. But regardless of how it happened, being slapped with a $69,000 bill after being maimed, debilitated, and likely nearly killed in an accident is appalling and preposterous.
As one commenter on her video put it, "You could've bought your own helicopter for that price." Just for fun, I Googled it, and it's true. In fact, she could buy multiple helicopters for that price.
And now, like millions of other Americans, she will likely be punished for needing medical care for years to come.
A recent study shows more than 100 million Americans have medical debt.
In 2023, NPR joined with KFF Health News, an independent, non-profit healthcare news and research organization, to dig into just how extensive the problem of medical debt is in America. Their findings were staggering.
Their study discovered that more than 100 million Americans — 41% of the country — have some form of medical debt, whether it be charges for medical services on a credit card or absurd, unconscionable bills like Aichner's $69,000 helicopter ride.
Like everything in America, the problem is far worse for those who tend to struggle the most economically and financially. They found that Black Americans are 50% more likely to have medical debt, and poor people are twice as likely.
And in a finding that is equally telling as it is unexpected, people under 30 are far more likely to have medical debt than the senior citizens who make up the bulk of patients.
These situations were found to have totally upended the lives of people who participated in the study's surveys, with 63% having to cut back on basic necessities like food and clothing, 40% taking on additional jobs or work hours, and 20% having to change their living situation in order to address their medical debt.
The situation is perverse and absurd. The phrase "medical debt" should not even be in our vocabulary in the first place — like "school lunch debt," it has no business existing outside of a dystopian novel, let alone in the wealthiest country on Earth.
But until we stop accepting it — and stop voting for people who not only refuse to fix it but wish to return it to the bad old days of denying coverage for "pre-existing conditions" and other barbaric practices from the past — it will only get worse.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.