AMBULANCE FEE

HAS RISEN FROM

THE GRAVE

Leggett's Comments Reveal Ambulance Tax

Not as Critical as Supporters Claim

Another www.RobertDyer.net Exclusive!!!

Grab the garlic. Montgomery County's ambulance fee is crawling through the darkness of failed leadership once again, stalking the most vulnerable among the county's citizens.

While a majority of Montgomery County residents firmly oppose the ambulance fee, County Executive Ike Leggett continues to bring it back for vote after vote.

We've all heard the fantasy: the ambulance fee is "$12 million we're leaving on the table. If you have insurance, we'll bill your insurance company. You'll never see the bill! If you can't pay, you won't pay!"

Now the facts, exclusively on RobertDyer.net:

I have some experience with ambulance fees, as I know someone who was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Pennsylvania. The municipality there had such a fee. This person - who had health insurance - did get a bill for the fee. The insurance company refused to pay the bill. So bill after bill after bill after bill kept arriving, demanding payment of the ambulance fee. There is a bill. You'll get the bill. And unless you have whatever insurance the people pushing this fee apparently have, you'll pay that bill. Or face collection.

Now, what if you can't pay the bill. Well, a county spokesman - accidently, perhaps - just let it slip that everyone will get a bill. The claim is that, if you can't pay the bill and have no insurance, you just let it go. The new twist revealed that you can't just "let it go." You have to file a waiver form with the county, and they will ostensibly decide if you pay or not. That's quite different from what we've heard before. And given some of the crazy formulas that keep struggling citizens from accessing other government assistance, who knows exactly what the standard will be?

So now that senior citizen squeaking by feels his arm getting numb, and has a chest pain. Should he call an ambulance and owe $800? It doesn't seem serious. Maybe he should just take an aspirin and lie down. Thus we have the deadly consequences of an ambulance fee.

Third, the ambulance fee - like the prompt dissolution of the Fire Board - is simply another attempt to hurt the volunteer fire departments of the county. I don't understand the strange world some of our politicians live in. With the exception of Councilmember Roger Berliner, I've never heard any elected official state out loud that Montgomery County's volunteer fire departments are critical to public safety and that this pointless tension between career and volunteer leadership (fueled by some on the council and the executive) needs to end.

The fee will directly impact the critical fundraising efforts of our volunteer departments, as citizens find themselves being double and triple-taxed for basic government services.

Still our "leaders" keep pushing this crazy ambulance fee.

With our always-rising budget shortfall currently at $762 million, we're sure to hear that the $12 million in ambulance fee money cannot be "left on the table."

Hmm. So, why is Ike Leggett stating that a $30 million salary increase for county employees is still on the table? That's more than double the projected take of the ambulance fee. In one door and out the other. While public safety employees are long overdue for an increase, the rest of the county government cannot justify a raise when private-sector employees are struggling without any increases.

What's this really about?

It's just like I've been telling you. A $12M ambulance fee isn't about getting $12M for MCFRS. It's about getting a new $12M that the county can switch from fire and rescue to the same special interests and developers who got the politicians elected.

Don't fall for it.