I have to go to a medical office at a hospital for some tests today. Not only does an ostensibly non-profit entity that makes an obscene amount of money from people who are sick or injured have the gall to charge for parking, but they have switched from the method of getting a ticket and paying later to an app that collects your data. I’m so fucking sick of every moment in life being monetized.
I am unfortunately very familiar with the policies of my local hospitals due to having multiple chronic conditions. They only partially reduce parking prices if you have a visit that lasts 4 hours or longer. At least, that’s the case for the hospital which I regularly have appointments which last that long. The other hospitals won’t provide any parking validation. Insult added to injury.
I remember when I lived in a smaller town and had never experienced having to pay for parking at a hospital. I read on reddit somebody commenting from the UK about having to pay for parking at hospitals and I thought it was absolutely barbaric. Everybody downvoted me because apparently it’s normal. Now I know better. It’s normal. Barbaric, but normal.
Paying for paying isn’t the problem. Americans expecting free parking is why we’re so cooked with climate change. The problem is how much we’re paying for the (crappy) healthcare.
We’re talking about hospitals. Access to hospitals should be free.
Agree, there is a torment nexus of urban planning design and healthcare that creates this hell scape where parking for malls is free but you have to pay to park for healthcare.
It should be reversed and the hospital could have a much smaller parking lot because it’s assumed most people won’t arrive by car.