Until now, ambulance drivers worked out the charges themselves, often leading to complaints from members of the public who felt that their bills were too high, The Beijing News says.

In February, Chinese media reported that a man in Shandong was slapped with a 3,600-yuan ($550; £380) charge after his ill father was transported 80km to hospital. That's about half the monthly wage of an average Beijing worker.

Do Chinese really have to pay for ambulances or is that just their governments propaganda.

[–] Sulvor@hexbear.net 42 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago) (1 children)

From May, the emergency vehicles will charge a fixed rate of 50 yuan ($8; £5) for patients being transported up to 3km (1.9 miles), and then seven yuan for each kilometre travelled after that, the Beijing Morning Post reports. If an ambulance is called but then not needed, a 50-yuan charge will still apply, the paper notes.

Oh my god a 10km ambulance ride would cost like $15, how terrible!

Meanwhile, in America:

Source

[–] TC_209@hexbear.net 33 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Congratulations on finding the second Google search result for "Chinese ambulance charge" -- I guess the equally out-of-date article from China Daily was a little too foreign.

[–] markinov@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 2 weeks ago

Do you know the meaning of -until now_? It clearly says

From May, the emergency vehicles will charge a fixed rate of 50 yuan ($8; £5) for patients being transported up to 3km (1.9 miles), and then seven yuan for each kilometre travelled after that, the Beijing Morning Post reports. If an ambulance is called but then not needed, a 50-yuan charge will still apply, the paper notes.

It means from 2016 they'll charging in this method that costs a lot less