So in your eyes, the population of several western countries is (and has been for decades) dominated by complete morons, resulting in free or almost free ambulance rides?

And what does the Democratic party have to do with all that? Your whole comment just seems like a thinly veiled and insulting political rant. Going by your account name, this seems to be a pattern.

So people should be getting financially ruined to god-forbid prevent some abuse of the system? As long as there is no abuse everything else is hunky-dory?

> Only a complete moron would think the answer to this is no. If there's no personal cost to using an extremely expensive service, every one is going to use it regardless of whether it's actually necessary. It will quickly turn into a free taxi service for anyone who wants to go anywhere near a hospital.

Okay, so why don't we see this behaviour more in other countries?

In my jurisdiction, the incentives are actually weighted towards pushing people to ambulances, as there is a €100 fee for self-referral to ED which is waived if you're transported, but while there are time wasters and frequent flyers, the service is actually less abused than US ambulances under EMTALA.