What does the county's ambulance fee mean for you?
Earlier this month, Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire-Rescue Association announced it had signed an agreement that effectively ended the volunteer firefighters’ fight against an ambulance fee passed by the Montgomery County Council. In the days following the announcement, county officials worried that their message was not being heard and that some media reports had, in the words of Montgomery Fire Chief Richard Bowers, given “the impression that, starting in January, everyone will have to pay for an ambulance ride in Montgomery County.” “Nothing is further from the truth,” Bowers said in an email to Patch. Bowers referred residents to a county website with information about the fee. The website, at www.…
How did the county wind up with an ambulance fee?
Earlier this month, Montgomery County and the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire-Rescue Association announced it had signed an agreement that effectively ended the volunteer firefighters’ fight against an ambulance fee passed by the Montgomery County Council. This is Part Two of a two-part “Q & A” about the fee. Answers are taken from a county website with questions and answers about the new law, from Patch reports on the fee and from other local media, as noted. Click here to read Part One. Part Two discusses how the agreement on the fee came to pass: Q: Why is the county doing this now? A: “Montgomery County is about to be hit by a ‘tidal wave’ from Annapolis,” the county website says. The Maryland General Assembly in May approved a 50-50 …
Volunteers and county reach agreement on funding; fee will take effect Jan. 1.
Montgomery County volunteer firefighters signed an agreement with the county on Monday that volunteers say will avoid a repeat of the 2010 ambulance fee referendum and allow the fee to take effect in January. The County Council approved the fee in May, 18 months after county voters rejected it by a 54-percent-to-46-percent margin in a 2010 ballot question. The county projects that the fee will generate $18 million a year that will go to additional fire and rescue service staffing, training, apparatus, facilities and equipment. “The bottom line is that the residents here in the county will be served much better because of the enhancements that will be made to the fire and rescue service with this EMS reimbursement,” said Montgomery County…
Rich Hutchison
11:05 am on Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Big, poweful, intusive, or whatever, this is an insideous example of government hinting to citizens that private health insurance is unnecessary. Just another small insideous way of redistributing wealth. This system is a disincentive to be responsible and pay for private insurance. It strikes against insurance companies and raises rates. If Obamacare is allowed to stand, we will eventually have … more ›