Finest health care system in the world.
Tracy [CA] residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.
But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.
Or, there’s the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.
“A $300 fee and you don’t even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance,” said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.
Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they’ll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.
Without healthcare reform, this probably makes sense.
Seems the Republicans together with the Health insurance industry have successfully blocked Healthcare reform for our nation.
Therefore, something needs to be done to curtail the crushing burden so I can see measures like this being taken as a stop gap.
Who cares, but if someone can post the sponsors that idolize another role model who can’t seem to keep his dick in his pants, I’ll do my part.
#3 Maybe the “sarcasm” in my previous post was too obtuse… Well, that’s the trouble with the ‘net.
Opps, my post about Tiger Woods is in the wrong comment section.
What does this have to do with health care reform? Are they only charging for medical emergencies? The answer to both is no.
It’s a double tax on service. the residents of Tracy are already being taxed for 911 service, now they’re being taxed to use it.
Jesus fuck, I can’t possibly see a better deterrent to legitimate 9-1-1 phone calls than this. I can already see the situation: Man having lunch on a little outdoor cafe patio, has a heart attack, goes down, he’s choking, he’s flailing for his life, the waiter runs over to him, and decisively points to a dude with a cell phone next to him: “You!,” he commands, “call 9-1-1!”
“Fuck you!,” the cell phone guy (leigimately) says. “I’m not paying $300 for that asshole!”
I’m not really sure if healthcare reform has anything to do with it (though I wouldn’t be surprised if it did), but this is just plain fucking stupid.
Also, excuse my cursing.
“What does this have to do with health care reform?”
Nothing. What this has to do with is gold-plated pensions for California government workers. Government workers are bleeding taxpayers dry. This fee wouldn’t be necessary if their obscene pensions were reduced.
#3 “So how do you feel about clean water, public schools, police and fire departments? Not a big fan or that one is OK?”
So where does it stop Dallas or do we just provide anything anyone “needs”?
This is a result of governments not following a reasonable budget and the increasing number of non payers in proportion to tax payers.
BTW, it is a common practice for ambulance services to have discount services for members that pay a yearly fee, excepting Highland Park of course.
#13: If the majority want government to provide something rather than private industry, you’re paying for a needed service either way. Ideally, with government provided service, it’s cheaper because added cost for profit isn’t included.
#14-Uncle Dave-Ideally, with government provided service, it’s cheaper because added cost for profit isn’t included.
You are forgetting that government waste, fraud and abuse must be factored into the final expense total.
No where is a government operation cheaper than the private sector.
#14 “Ideally, with government provided service, it’s cheaper because added cost for profit isn’t included.”
I think ideally is the operative word here and it’s seldom, if ever, achieved due to corruption, etc. so government provided service has it own added “cost” similar to profit.
It’s hilarious that they would blame conservatives for the actions of the most liberal state in the country. Face it, the most liberal state in the union is bankrupt. Your liberal bullshit has bled the country dry. Nice job thieves.
My monthly phone bill already contains a tax for 911 service. Why a second charge? Increase the first tax and don’t complicate things with a second. I’m more frustrated that instead of just increasing targeted taxes to cover the cost they keep adding new ones.
Tracy, CA is the next town from me. Damnit! Ambulance service ALONE can be in upwards of $10,000.
#18 I believe the tax put there for 911 service doesn’t apply to cel phones. Since so many people have cel phones, they aren’t getting the revenue they used too. But Tracy CA residents mostly consists of executives who work in the Silicon Valley/Bay Area, so they can afford it. LOL.
#15 Dr.Dodd
“No where is a government operation cheaper than the private sector.”
Ah, again speaking in absolutes. Canadian health care costs (government run) are lower per capita, with measurably better outcomes. Some provinces up here who were not afraid of the auto insurance lobby, implemented provincial government auto insurance, people there have seen lower premiums and no change in benefits. And before you go off, these are independently studied results.
“You are forgetting that government waste, fraud and abuse must be factored into the final expense total”
Like the fraud and abuse factored in by Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, etc.
Is the government the answer for everything? Of course not! Is the private sector the best answer for everything? Of course not either!
That’s the problem with subscribing to an ideology; doesn’t leave much room for nuance and accommodation.
$300 would be six times the average Californian taxi fare. Taxis are the third world’s equivalent of an ambulance, fire engine, police wagon, wedding limo, cruise missile. Far more effective on account of their abundance and that the drivers generally know the neighborhood. So, an enterprising taxi company fits out a Chevy Suburban with bed bunks and plastic sheeting, a defib and oxygen masks – instant competition.
#20-Mikey Twit-Canadian health care costs (government run) are lower per capita, with measurably better outcomes.
The fact that the Canadian Premier Danny Williams had to come to the US for a medical procedure not offered in Canada tends to render your claim false.
I can only imagine the nightmare regular folks must go through if the Newfoundland Premier must seek help elsewhere.
>>Like the fraud and abuse factored in by Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, etc.
Fraud and abuse happens, but unless a company is a monopoly like government or bailed out by government the market will take care of it.
Last month I was taken by ambulance to the emergency room, 4 miles, $645. Take a cab…
Or you could go old school and get the phone numbers for the local police and fire department and put them on speed dial.
I guess Flava Flav was right, 911 is a joke in yo town.
#13 ..So where does it stop Dallas or do we just provide anything anyone “needs”? ..
Old excuse. I don’t subscribe to the “everything is a slippery slope” theory that seem to block rational thinking with conservatives.
Any attempt at solving a problem be it social or governmental is met with some made up fear.It all goes back to seeing things in black and white versus shades of gray. It is astonishing.
I’ll accept your opinion that basic healthcare should remain a privilege but your slippery slope response has no merit.
#8 ..your head is up your semen collector, ..
Is that what you call an ass? I hope you don’t use that language at home. The next thing you know your daughter might start referring to her behind as daddy’s semen collector.
In rebutting Mikey Twit, #23 Dr Dodd wrote “The fact that the Canadian Premier Danny Williams had to come to the US for a medical procedure not offered in Canada tends to render your claim false.”
So one incident renders an entire body of statistics based on numerous cases false??? Your complete disregard of logic does, however, explain some of the comments you’ve made, as well as your belief in mythical demons and deities.
The fact is that Danny Williams is quite wealthy, having made a fortune in cable television, and America continues to provide the highest quality health care in the world, as long as cost is no object. When you can afford the very best, why settle for a local hospital? However, average Canadians who cannot afford the world’s top doctors remain better served by the Canadian health care system. That may be why they live longer while spending a little over half as much for health care. Or maybe Jesus loves Canadians more.
I hope you can afford the world’s best surgeon for that logic transplant you’ve been needing, because the first thing an American surgeon will X-ray is your wallet.
$300 is going to make a lot of people think twice about calling 911. If you are a Tracy resident and you notice someone down the block being mugged do you call the cops for $300 or hope that some other neighbor has already beat you to it and save the money?
Or if you notice smoke coming out of a neighbor’s window across the way, do you spend the $300 on 911, call the fire department or police department on their non-911 number, or do nothing?
I think it’s a bad idea to charge for 911, plain and simple.
So did they eliminate the phone tax to institute this policy? Is this possibly because unpatriotic residents of Tracy dropped their local phone company to give money to Skype?
#28 Gary
Thanks, you beat me to it!
Again, what was that I said about ideologies?
You don’t think person with a functioning brain(hope you get yours soon Dr.Dodd!), let alone a Canadian wouldn’t go wherever they want for the best health care they could get, as fast as they could get if they had the money? Who knows if he would have been served just as well if he stayed, that’s his and his doctors business, not mine or yours. But hypothetically, say he had to wait, say 2 weeks for said procedure locally or within Canada, without any danger to himself, or being the rich man that he is, which I do not begrudge him, can fly to the first place that offers said procedure the next day, who in his/her right mind wouldn’t take the latter option?
As I stated in my previous facts, which you’re free to research to your hearts content…ah but we’ve seen that facts don’t fit into your ideologies, and we know with you, what always wins in that conflict in your teeny mind.
If the $300 charge in Tracy for 9-1-1 deters residents from calling, and they open the front door and scream for help instead, they’ll be arrested on a charge of disturbing the peace. Let’s see now, the fine for that comes to…… oh, $300!
Next year, they’ll be making even deeper budget cuts, and they’ll have to outsource their emergency calls to an operator in New Delhi who also provides technical support for Samsung printers.
The result of living in a nation where the only justification for existence is ‘how much money can it/he/she make’. Things/people that do not generate enough income do not deserve to exist. Carrying this philosophy to an extreme is having some very serious consequences.
The signs are there, and thing’s are gonna get much worse. Emigrate before it’s too late.
#33 Santa Maria
Ooooh yeahhh, ANARCHY! Makes for entertaining TV! I’ll be watching from a safe comfortable distance, but go ahead, knock yourselves out.
as someone who lives in Tracy. The city has outsourced the 911 center and now the center has to show a profit.
#1 It computes in CA after they had their health care reform, created a nanny state and bankrupted the government. Here in TN we don’t have to go there.
I’m afraid # 8 has my vote.
Of course when the wastrel spend thrifts running the Federal government finish bankrupting it as I expect we won’t need 911 because nobody will be able to afford health care nor will the government be providing such. Maybe free body bags though you have to admit the people wearing body bags don’t really need them or care.