TLDR: private equity

The piece is actually quite concise, but you're right in the other respect. You definitely didn't read it. Private equity as an explanation is explicitly rejected.

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jfim 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The article argues the exact opposite:

> The standard answer is greed: rapacious ambulance operators, owned by villainous private equity firms, exploit patients at their most helpless. But I don’t think that’s actually what’s going on. Ambulance providers are chronically unprofitable businesses; margins are thin, crews are underpaid, and operators exit the industry every year.

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deathanatos 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That paragraph is somewhat incoherent at that point in the article: margins are razor thin — at a price tag of $12,000 per 6 miles or $2,000 per mile.

(Yes, there is some other stuff, much, much, much later that maybe cuts into that …)

	▲	jfim 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The cost isn't about the actual mileage though, it's having two paramedics each earning about 100k/yr per ambulance, while having coverage 24x7x365. So fully loaded, the labor for one ambulance might be in the high six figures to seven figures.

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5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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