The ambulance bill

arrived yesterday - $999 please. 
The Senior Cat has health cover so it won't be that much but it is still an alarming bill to get. 
The bill tells those who have a health care card they only need pay half that. That's still $499 - and most of those with a health care card would be struggling to pay $49.
The ambulance staff who have come here have all been excellent. They have been kind and caring. Many years ago they had to rush the Senior Cat to hospital when he had an internal bleed after an operation. (The hospital had sent him home too soon after major surgery - lack of beds.) They could not have been faster or more efficient as well as kind.
Last  year I called them when the Senior Cat cracked his skull when he fainted in the bathroom. This past month I had to call them again. On both occasions when I said I didn't drive they said "Of course you can come with us." I was extremely grateful - and told them so.
Some years ago the hospital phoned me and said they needed me urgently to act as an "interpreter" for a non-speaking patient. (I am on his "call" list.) I said I'd be there as soon as I could but the trains were out and it was pouring with rain so a taxi might be delayed. They diverted an ambulance doing a non-urgent transport job to pick me  up. (The old man who was the patient thought it was funny and told me, "I didn't think I was catching the bus.")  The crew on that one were great too - dropping me off at the closest possible point to where I needed to go.
But the cost of the service bothers me. The ambulance crews are not paid enough for the job they do. It's an incredibly responsible job. The last time I called I had said, "He needs oxygen."
They didn't question it. They came in with it. "In case you were right." Good. They gave him oxygen. 
They had to make other decisions too. I thought the Senior Cat needed to be in hospital because I am not big enough or strong enough to handle him - but would they think he was ill enough for that? Yes. Another decision they had to make.
There were three crew...one was a "newbie" learning the job. There was the dispatcher. There were people at the other end telling us which hospital we could go to. It's all terribly complex.  It all demands equipment, trained crew, highly skilled drivers, ambulances that won't break down and more.  
So $999 doesn't really seem a lot in that context. 
And perhaps it will help to pay back just a little of the many thousands of dollars it took to air lift the Black Cat to the city when she was involved in an accident many years ago. She wasn't working at the time and didn't have to pay anything - because she had no money at all. 
I just hope I never take the service for granted.