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Pi1otguy

Pi1otguy

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Fox McCloud
in Ventura, CA for 911 calls.
article said:
The per-call fee was reduced to $17.88, down from $50 as initially proposed, the latest proposal shows.
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In addition to the free pass on the first call, any calls by those witnessing a possible crime or reporting an emergency on behalf of someone else also can be exempted when appropriate, he said.
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Does this mean the county will subrogate for $17.88 in these cases?

edit: http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/feb/23/ventura-city-officials-revise-911-fee/
 
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this is exactly why my great grandma would rather spend all day struggling to crawl to her feet after a fall than call the ambulance.
 
O. M. G.!!! That is such a bad idea! What's the link for the article for more info?
 
SkyHog said:
California....
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I know...NM is such a model for quality of life.

To help you towards understanding...Ventura is between two (Los Angeles and Santa Barabara) of the most liberal counties in the state. If only they would leave the rest alone.
 
smigaldi said:
Hope you, and in fact no one has to ever call for an ambulance or FD. But if you do most places I have lived will send you a bill for the services.
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A bill for the services like the ambulance ride is one thing. I fully get that. A fee for the call that should have been taken care of by taxes and the general fund I don't get.
 
Pi1otguy said:
A bill for the services like the ambulance ride is one thing. I fully get that. A fee for the call that should have been taken care of by taxes and the general fund I don't get.
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Why should every have to pay? Shouldn't only the people who use that service pay? If everyone is paying whether they use the service or not, isn't that a form of socialism?
 
smigaldi said:
Why should every have to pay? Shouldn't only the people who use that service pay? If everyone is paying whether they use the service or not, isn't that a form of socialism?
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Kinda like insurance. :)
 
smigaldi said:
Hope you, and in fact no one has to ever call for an ambulance or FD. But if you do most places I have lived will send you a bill for the services.
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The folks at the Greenwood County EMS gave me a rundown on how things go with their fees.

- If you call and go for a ride, you get hit with the costs.
- If someone else calls and you go for a ride, you get hit with the costs.
- If you call and don't go for a ride, you get hit with the costs of their "dispatch".
- If someone else calls and you don't go, no one has to pay anything.

Expect about $600 for a five minute trip to the hospital. More if they need to do more than just pop an IV in you.

Wonder if insurance would cover the 911 call?
 
Hmmm.... Hypotheticals here.
One has a dryer fire. One puts it out with my fire extinguisher that one keeps handy. One doesn't call, because one doesn't want to be hit with the fee. Burning lint escaped from the dryer vent and traveled to the dry grass. It smolders and a few minutes later the grass catches fire. One's neighbor's house catches on fire...

One see a kid involved in a minor altercation. One doesn't call because of the fees. One knows that the fee can be waived if someone else calls, but that it doesn't say it shall be waived. An hour later, the kid comes back with a gun and shoots the other kid involved in the altercation.


Unintended consequences.
 
gprellwitz said:
Hmmm.... Hypotheticals here.
One has a dryer fire. One puts it out with my fire extinguisher that one keeps handy. One doesn't call, because one doesn't want to be hit with the fee. Burning lint escaped from the dryer vent and traveled to the dry grass. It smolders and a few minutes later the grass catches fire. One's neighbor's house catches on fire...

One see a kid involved in a minor altercation. One doesn't call because of the fees. One knows that the fee can be waived if someone else calls, but that it doesn't say it shall be waived. An hour later, the kid comes back with a gun and shoots the other kid involved in the altercation.


Unintended consequences.
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At times like this, I just have to say, "It's California. We aren't losing much."
 
smigaldi said:
Why should every have to pay? Shouldn't only the people who use that service pay? If everyone is paying whether they use the service or not, isn't that a form of socialism?
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Because it benefits everyone and is virtually a function of government. For instance, I'm driving down a road and I see a small brush fire on some one else's land (public or private) would you want me to delay while I consider the fee and whether I fit into an exemption?

wbarnhill said:
The folks at the Greenwood County EMS gave me a rundown on how things go with their fees.

- If you call and go for a ride, you get hit with the costs.
- If someone else calls and you go for a ride, you get hit with the costs.
- If you call and don't go for a ride, you get hit with the costs of their "dispatch".
- If someone else calls and you don't go, no one has to pay anything.

Expect about $600 for a five minute trip to the hospital. More if they need to do more than just pop an IV in you.

Wonder if insurance would cover the 911 call?
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But there are real cost involved in maintaining the EMS techs and they should be paid for their services as they usually provide high quality service. I just don't want to pay for a call center that should already be covered by other taxes.
 
Pi1otguy said:
Because it benefits everyone and is virtually a function of government. For instance, I'm driving down a road and I see a small brush fire on some one else's land (public or private) would you want me to delay while I consider the fee and whether I fit into an exemption?
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Exactly. If I thought I were going to hit with costs for reporting something that is in the benefit of society to be reported, I have no problem saying "screw society." And that would actually be my exact thought process - if they're too cheap to cover the costs of me helping them, I'm too cheap to help them.

But there are real cost involved in maintaining the EMS techs and they should be paid for their services as they usually provide high quality service. I just don't want to pay for a call center that should already be covered by other taxes.
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I agree with the user paying the actual costs of this service. Why should you pay because I like to play lacrosse and get knocked out when a guy hits me from behind because I've been shutting him down all game (yes, that happened to me, and I don't see why society should pay for something resulting from an activity that only benefits me), and why should you or I pay for some climbers from Texas who try to climb Mt. Hood in the face of a winter storm and get themselves killed?

Now, if I require the services of an ambulance or EMT because I'm in the process of doing something that benefits the public (say, putting out a wildfire, or trying to rescue a drowning kid), my opinion is different.
 
Pi1otguy said:
Because it benefits everyone and is virtually a function of government.
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JohnR said:
If they aren't self-insured, and insurance companies won't cover them, too bad. Live and learn.
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Ted said:
My HOA contracts directly with a for-profit firefighting company. We're not in a municipality or a fire district. It works.
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The conservative viewpoint is that what you are prosing is a socialist idea and is bad for America. Ala Carte government services benefit the entire population by forcing the agency to run as a business, to staff to their needs and to charge those that use the services appropriately.


Pi1otguy said:
But there are real cost involved in maintaining the EMS techs and they should be paid for their services as they usually provide high quality service. I just don't want to pay for a call center that should already be covered by other taxes.
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Sure there are. And the FD should be determining how many calls they expect and charge the callers for those serves and an appropriate profit charge that will ensure that they can keep the doors open in between call up times.
If taxes are ok to fund this service because it serves everyone then is it not ok then to use taxes to pay for universal health care? That also serves everyone in the same way the fire department and ambulances serve everyone.
 
Just remember that most states and localities impose 911 fees on your monthly phone bill. IIRC the Feds require a 911 fee also (for univeral 911 service).

The fees mentioned here are on top of and above the regular fees that you pay. They are intended to ensure recovery (soak) your insurance company as such costs are generally covered in insurance plans. In the end, the insurance cost gets passed on (with a markup) to the consumer.

Localities have become hungry for new taxes that aren't called taxes, or on taxes that can hit visitors/non-voters. Look at hotel and rental car taxes sometime - Phoenix and San Antonio are two of the highest I know of.
 
smigaldi said:
You have the ambulance fees in Michigan too.
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But we don't have a 911 fee per call we're already paying it per month on phone bills.
 
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Aren't cell phones, even those without active service, supposed to be able to make 911 calls? Seems like it'd be easy to just call from one of those or a prepaid, don't tell the operator your information, and bada bing, bada boom.
 
EdFred said:
But we don't have a 911 fee per call.
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Perhaps not on a per call basis but you might want to check you phone bill. I'll bet you have some 911 fees. Also if a truck rolls to your house, be it ambulance or apparatus I'll bet you will get some sort of bill for you to submit to your insurance company.
 
wbarnhill said:
Aren't cell phones, even those without active service, supposed to be able to make 911 calls? Seems like it'd be easy to just call from one of those or a prepaid, don't tell the operator your information, and bada bing, bada boom.
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yes they are. Those that are paying for their phone service are paying a 911 fee on their phone bills. They are also having to subsidizing the people who just use a phone without service for 911. In other words there are people who are too lazy to get real phone service and they are making hard working Americans have to subsidize them through a 911 welfare system.
 
smigaldi said:
yes they are. Those that are paying for their phone service are paying a 911 fee on their phone bills. They are also having to subsidizing the people who just use a phone without service for 911.
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I see that on my bill to along with a previously illegal phone tax (another issue) but it was just a few dimes. The USF is another thing. While I'm not fond of paying other peoples phone service there are many that will not have phone service without my money. There were several news stories about incidents where further injury or loss of life occurred because there was no working phone line. Low income and/or tremendously bad credit made it difficult for some to have phone service in the past.
 
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