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I just want to add some perspective on fire departments and EMS since people seem to be praising them as socialized and "working great." There are huge differences in one department to the next, and lots of times there is not enough money to cover everything. I find this the worst in areas where the fire departments are volunteer. There are actually counties in THIS country where the government can't be bothered to pay firefighters. This was what my department was like when I lived in Virginia. Beyond not being willing to pay firefighters, we had to fight tooth and nail, and BEG for grants for even the simplest things. Our trucks were all more than 20 years old. It took us months to get a grant for a new chainsaw.
Most fires in that area ended up being total loss. I hate that saying that sounds like incompetence on the part of the firefighters, but what could we do? There was a group of people willing to do this on our own time and not get paid for it, and let's face it, it's just as dangerous whether you're being paid or not, and we couldn't even get the state or the county to meet us half way and just give us the equipment we needed.
Sadly, that was the reality for many of the volunteer departments there. Some had more funding and newer trucks and equipment, but it was always just a portion of what was really needed.
I don't know how the mega departments are doing. Obviously not all departments are as bad off as the one I used to be on, not even all vollie departments are. But the bottom line is there are areas in this country where government run programs are not doing what they are supposed to be doing. The citizens I served when I was a firefighter deserved better than what I was able to give them. They deserved to receive what their taxes were paying for.
The people that live in rural areas, are they going to receive what they're paying for in health care? If the Medicaid program already doesn't pay doctors what they need to function, how can we be sure they're going to start? Do we want our doctors to be as poorly funded as I know some volunteer fire departments are? There are some great doctors in this world that would work for free just like the firefighters do, but will they be given the supplies they need?
You know WHY my department wasn't funded? Our area only served about 1000 people. In my 4 years on that department we had 4 or 5 total loss homes. We didn't cover enough people to need the funds according to the people who control the cash, bigger departments needed more money than we did and they got dibs. I guess those people that lost their homes didn't matter because their homes weren't in the right place. If you've never had to call the fire department it's easy to say you're happy knowing firefighters are there without knowing the politics that goes on in their department. Just having a fire department isn't enough.
Is this how it will be with health care for people in true rural areas? Or poor urban areas? If funds are distributed based on how many people are in an area then less populated areas will be screwed. If funds are distributed based on how many taxable dollars there are in an area, less affluent areas will be screwed.
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