Finding Ulysses

Here is an excerpt from the resolution passed on 12/14/09 after which your EMS Task Force was formed to implement the plan,

Whereas, a fee-for-service EMS ambulance service will take the form of an insurance only service for the purposes of protecting the most vulnerable patients within our fire district, those who lack any form of insurance coverage;

 

Therefore, be it resolved that the Village of Trumansburg shall move forward in good faith to establish any and all requirements, policies and procedures necessary to adopt a fee-for-service EMS ambulance service with a target inception date of June 1, 2010.

The “insurance only” aspect is now off the table since the Town Attorney’s memo has pointed to its illegality.  The former chair of your task force stated that if the “insurance only” aspect could  not be implemented, then a fee for service system would not work.  The public overwhelmingly rejected the plan (6/18/08 public meeting) before “insurance only” was part of it.

The basis for forming your task force, has been radically altered.  The task force should be ended.  You can no longer move forward in good faith.  Discussion of whether or not a fee for service system of any type must be readdressed at the Village Board, and the public should be a much larger part of this discussion.

When a person or group of persons set about to accomplish a task for a reason, and then circumstances change such that the reason is perhaps invalid, it is important to reexamine the reasons before proceeding with the task.  This reexamination is outside the scope of a “task force”.  Therefore the “task force” must be terminated or at least paused to allow for the reexamination.

The next step is for the boards of Trumansburg, Ulysses, Hector and Covert to all pass resolutions to initiate billing.  Then we can begin to shift some of our tax burden onto the insurance companies, who will of course, raise their premiums by this new cost, plus profit.  ”Insurance only billing” is off the table, so now the only people that need not worry about cost during a medical emergency, are those of us with platinum health insurance policies.  Statistics have shown that when a community initiates a fee for service system, the 911 calls decrease.  Some of these people die.

The next Village Board meeting is April 11th, and then the Ulysses Town Board meets the next evening.

The Vermont House just passed single payer legislation, and the Senate appears ready to do the same, and the Governor is eager to sign it into law.  http://www.valleyadvocate.com/article.cfm?aid=13331 This will serve as a model for the rest of the country.  This is how it happened in Canada.  First Saskatchewan, then the rest of the country.  But in Trumansburg we are moving 180 degrees in the opposite direction.