Boing Boing

Boing Boing

Why an ambulance ride can cost $12,873 – blame the hearse

Ellsworth Toohey
Jul 10, 2026
∙ Paid

Ambulance (Halytskyi Olexandr/shutterstock.com)

For most of the twentieth century, if you needed an ambulance in America, a funeral home sent one — the only vehicle built to carry someone lying flat was the hearse. David Oks traces the whole expensive mess back to that arrangement: funeral homes ran cars that carried patients and coffins alike and barely…

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