Subscribe free to our daily email newsletterCounty Council Rejects Ambulance Fees
Jun 30, 2009 12:12 - 1 Comment
>Rockville Central friend Jennifer Deseo, who established and runs the excellent Silver Spring Penguin, has passed along the news that the Montgomery County Council has rejected a proposal to charge insurance companies for ambulance services.
Her story:
In a 5-to-3 vote, county council members decided to keep ambulance rides free for people in Montgomery County, as well as for parts of The District and PG County that sometimes get help from nearby MoCo fire and rescue units. Council member Nancy Floreen (D-At large) abstained.
The decision puts to bed (at least for now) MoCo exec Ike Leggett’s objective of hauling an additional $15 million in county revenue from the fee. According to his plan, health insurance companies would have billed $300 to $800 for each ambulance trip; uninsured patients would have rolled for free.
Leggett’s advocates argued that insurers already charge policy holders for ambulance services, and that the county would be collecting cash money that’s already been paid for. But council president Phil Andrews (D-District 3) suggested Tuesday that patients would still sweat the bill because insurance companies would only pass the tab on to them.
“I don’t believe insurance companies would eat the cost. They’re not charities,” Andrews told colleagues on the public-safety committee.
There’s more; keep reading at the Penguin.
Thank you, Jennifer, for the excellent report.
I think Councilmember Andrews is correct. Also, although Mr. Leggett is an attorney, I think it is illegal to deliberately set up a system of billing where people who have insurance have their insurance billed while people who do not have insurance are not billed.