Politics Over Life.

[emsmedic39]

eCapitol News

OK-Rural ambulance service bill feared dead

Author : Bryan Smith

Date : 05/22/2008

(OK) A dejected EMT by the name of Rodney Johnson expressed his disappointment with House leadership on Thursday as a House joint resolution seeking to improve rural ambulance remained, as yet, unheard on the floor.

According to Johnson, a chief proponent of the measure, HJR 1014, by Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, and Sen. Charles Wyrick, D-Fairland, will likely not receive a hearing in the House. The bill proposes a constitutional amendment removing the current tax maximum for emergency medical service districts. It also removes the requirement that emergency medical districts follow school district boundary lines. Though the bill is technically still alive, Johnson said he received word from House membership that there was no chance for the measure to be heard.

"I understand that they have to make political decisions," said Johnson. "But when I go to work, I have to make life and death decisions - people are going to die."

The goal of the bill was to give local communities, farm communities, the ability to vote on how they wished to fund their ambulance services, Johnson said. There is a crisis in rural communities, he said. Many do not have any dedicated ambulance service at all. In such cases, neighboring districts are required by law to cover the area, adding to response times and stretching resources even further. Ambulance service closings have become common in much of rural Oklahoma, and Johnson said he believes it is a serious crisis that needs immediate attention.

"Local communities need to be able to make important decisions about emergency services. There are lives at stake," he said. "The speaker is putting lives at stake on the alter of political idealism."

The measure was also mentioned by Rep. Ryan Kiesel, D-Seminole, on the floor of the House during discussion of SB 47, by Sen. Brian Crain, R-Tulsa, and Rep. Sue Tibbs, R-Tulsa. Kiesel said they should be discussing something more important than implantation of microchips, such as the rural ambulance service bill.

SB 47 prohibits the forced implantation of a microchip or the application of a permanent mark upon an individual by any person, state, county, local government entity or corporate entity. The bill permits the Department of Health to impose a maximum fine of $10,000 against violators. Each day of continued violation would constitute a separate offense.

As for HJR 1014, Johnson said he would try again next year.