American dad stunned after paying double for daughter's ambulance ride simply because he had insurance

It is well-known that healthcare can be quite expensive in America, even for an insured person. But a man found out that his health insurance was surprisingly making him pay even more than an uninsured person. He had to take his daughter to the hospital in an ambulance and saw that his bill had doubled after he had sent in his insurance details. The dad, Robby, who goes by @thesephew on TikTok, shared his conversation with the customer sales representative on the platform.

The man called the hospital and pointed out, "I think there is a mistake on the bill, but maybe you can help me out." He added, "We got a bill, and then we realized that you didn't have our insurance. So, we sent our insurance, and it looks like our bill went up." The dad continued, "The first bill we got without insurance was 600 bucks, and the second one was almost 1300 bucks." The person on the other end explained that the first bill was with a discount, and a patient is only eligible for that if they are uninsured. The man asked, "Can I go back to the discount without the insurance?" The person revealed that an insured person would still not be eligible for the discount.

The man wondered if simply canceling his insurance would get him a discount or not. The person clarified that he wasn't eligible because he had been insured. "Okay, so I'll get cheaper healthcare if I am uninsured." The person kept repeating themselves, so the man questioned, "Is this common? I pay for insurance, and I end up paying more out of pocket because I pay for a premium. That's wild." The hospital staff explained that there was a law formulated in 2024 that made only uninsured people eligible for a discount. "If I have the incentive straight here, if I want to pay less for medical care, I should cancel my insurance if my daughter needs lifesaving medical care." The person answered, "I am not sure." The dad looked stunned after the conversation.

"This is not satire," the man wrote in the text overlay. "This is the state of healthcare in America for a lifesaving ambulance ride for my daughter. The state of California is penalizing citizens who have insurance." The video received more than 24 million views and over 3 million likes. People expressed their thoughts on the situation in the comments section of the video. @kayyay91 wrote, "Not eligible for discount because you're insured. Why are we paying for insurance when it makes us have to pay more for medical care?"

@imaginatively_wes commented, "People in the comments are so concerned about the uninsured getting the privilege of paying $600 rather than asking why their healthcare costs so much in the first place. This shouldn’t be an issue of insured vs uninsured, it should be an issue of human rights. Everyone deserves access to health care without the fear of going into debt." @hunica remarked, "Confused in British…what do you mean kids at the very least don’t have free medical care? They’re expecting parents to be stressed financially over a sick child?" @punkin004 expressed, "You know what? Let’s all cancel our insurance for next year. Let Optum and BCBS and all of them go bankrupt."

You can follow Robby (@thesephew) on TikTok for more lifestyle content.