this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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In Italy I pay 0€ to be evacuated from anywhere. It's crazy that you have to pay for an emergency.
Yeah it's not great. Transport costs for emergencies are often only covered 50% in Switzerland. We do have the second most costly system after the US, and it's for the same reason imho, private insurers. There are some more guardrails here than in the US, so it's not completely horrible, but there are lots of better systems around Europe.
Regarding helicopter rescue specifically, that's kind of a funny case. In Switzerland the first helicopter rescue organization was founded as a non-profit foundation called Rega, and it continues to operate that way.
For patrons the Rega eats the cost of a rescue that no insurance covers. If you are not a patron and get rescued then the cost of the rescue that isn't covered falls to you. So in effect a Rega patronage also acts as a sort of gap-insurance.
Around 40% of the population are registered patrons of the Rega foundation. The cost for that is what benjirenji was actually referring to.
In Switzerland they deal with an endless line of brain-dead tourists that put themselves into stupid situations where helicopter evacuation is the only option, so I can kinda understand that they'd put some stuff in place to prevent people from abusing that.
Tourists are human and all humans deserve free and ready access to healthcare or other emergency services, regardless of if they were born within the arbitrary bounds of your nation or otherwise.
There is no understanding that justifies requiring payment for emergency services behind a paywall.