Hahahahaha I almost included this information but thought someone might get mad at how clearly it demonstrates the need for universal single-payer health insurance 
I ate one bite of a cheese sandwich that mistakenly had cashew pesto (allergy to tree nuts). Within 45 minutes, I was unconscious on the street (*). An ambulance came, and also one of the special mopeds that the Magen David Adom invented that can get through very urban areas. They stabilized me with two separate epipen treatments and probably fluids/steroids/etc. Then I was taken to the hospital and observed/treated for the rest of the day (about eight hours).
They spoke to me at release, saying, “you may have US insurance, and we can bill in general, but you will have to pay the ambulance up front because it’s a different service.” I thought to myself, “well, they saved my life. I do have some mutual funds in case of emergency.” They said, “that will be 700 shekels (about $180 at the time).” I thought to myself, that’s less than the donation I planned to send you when I got home (!!). The total cost including everything was maybe 1000 shekels. Certainly overall a bill of less than $500. I did indeed send a donation of $250 to MDA as well.
In the USA, the ambulance alone would have cost in the thousands of dollars if not tens of thousands. Heck, they charged at the time something like $500 just for one set of epipens if people didn’t get discounts (I realize there was a settled lawsuit in the meantime about that). I imagine that the brief hospital stay would also have been costly.
(The hospital experience was kind of interesting. It was on a Friday, and there were several volunteers who kept coming through the triage area, including what I can only describe as Klezmer Mariachis, as well as someone who gave out challahs for shabbat.)
(*) being in the street saved me. Initially, I felt kind of itchy and was going to go back to the hotel and take a Benadryl. At the last minute, DS16 said he would come with me. We got back and since it was actually an airbnb in Jerusalem, there was only one key which I’d left with DH and the other kids. Both of these facts (with DS and outside) meant that when I did collapse, it was in public and with someone to get help. I suspect that if I had actually had a hotel room key and just went to lie down alone, I would have died. I did get rapidly worse during this whole time, and it was a very quick transition from “do I really want to waste a day of vacation getting medical help” to “crash on sidewalk”. My last waking thought as I saw the moped approach was, “I’m not sure I can hold on to that guy’s waist to get to the hospital”. (The MDA pioneered this thing where in urban areas, they send a moped EMT ahead of the ambulance if it’s a very crowded street. That person has epipens - and likely Narcan, insulin, IED, etc. But no, you don’t ride behind him on the way to the hospital; they stabilize you in situ.)
