The $12,873 Six-Mile Ride – American Healthcare Chronicles

I recently started building products focused on healthcare affordability in the US. As I was ramping up on a new space, the biggest question that sparked my curiosity was: how did we get here? This question is the inspiration for this weekly series chronicling the decisions, accidents, and breakthroughs that built the US healthcare system. Mathe shared a fantastic post by David Oks that made for a powerful sequel to last week’s post on “EMTALA”. I’ll weave David’s notes (which you should read in full) with some additional context as we continue pulling on the thread of “how did we get here.” In July 2023, a 25-year-old named Jagdish Whitten was hit by a car crossing a street in San Francisco. He waved off the ambulance that arrived and called a friend instead. Doctors found a mild concussion, a broken toe, some bruising. Because of the traumatic nature of the injury, they transferred him to San Francisco General — the city’s only trauma center. This time he had no choice. A six-mile…