Thursday, 19 February 2009
-
$50 For Every 911 Call, How Stupid Can They Get?
This is really stupid news. The city council for a town in California is thinking of charging their residents $50 dollars for each 911 call. This is in response to protests by residents against the monthly 911 charge of $1.49.
I'm not sure which group is dumber, the residents for complaining about a $1.50 monthly charge or the city council for charging $50 for emergency calls. Yes, the economy is not getting any better but putting people's health in jeopardy is not the way to go.
What do you think, should the residents just pay the $1.49 or should the city council charge $50 per every emergency call?
mancouch.com
-
recommend
- recs 1
-
share
-
email
- sent 0
Related Posts
Post a Comment
- Back to mancouch's Mancouch Site!
- Note: your comment will appear in mancouch's local time zone: GMT -05:00 (Eastern Standard - US, Canada)
Comments (25)
Hmm.... I suppose that the 1.49 makes the most sense to me as a general tax, as it is a program which everyone will need to use at some point in their life. Plus, fifty bucks a pop could get expensive, and is sorta like saying to the poorest people in the community "We're sorry you can't make rent AND get emergency help, what do you think this is, a fairly and equally provided service?"
most of the people in our government are idiots anyways.
The councilmen and women in this small town are no exception.
The 1.49 is the better route. I think the residents are retarded. I will speak on an area that I am familiar with. An ambulance ride for most insurance policies I've seen is $50. If one has insurance. For those that do not it can get expensive fast. Many of these bills go unpaid. (If you can't afford insurance in the first place how then is one supposed to pay medical bills?) Medical equipment is expensive. If the city isn't making enough money to pay for equipment, why would anyone complain about paying more? "Sorry, can't afford ET tubes to intubate so we will just have to use this bic pen for a surgical cricothyrotomy instead with a recycled scalpel." **
**In English: "We don't have the sterile plastic tube to stick down your throat to isolate the trachea to breath for you, so we will use the plastic tubing of a pen to stick into the hole we just cut in your throat so we can breath for you."
In retrospect, one probably wouldn't have to say that because if the patient needs ventilation they probably wouldn't be all that conscious.
911 should be free. People already pay taxes.
They shouldn't have to pay anything to call 911.
"Sorry, we would come stop the burglar, but you're $26.95 short. Good luck!"
911 is a very good service, and the $1.50 is not a bad thing for them to ask! So you're paying $18 a year so that when you need it, someone can be on call to save your life. 911 doesn't just dispatch the ambulances, fire trucks, or police. They also sit with you on the phone and give you verbal help (as in, instructions for CPR).
But really, the charge doesn't matter. We're already paying so much in taxes for stupid, useless things that our respective governments do. Hell, in my hometown, there is a "right to work" tax, which was $52 last time I checked, which is automatically deducted out of one's first paycheck from any job.
After ambulance and emergency room charges, both the $18 and the $50 are pretty negligible (I had a simple outpatient surgery that cost $12,000). If the situation arises where I need to call 911, I'm going to call whether it costs $18 or $50.
So how would this work...I pull up to an accident and call 911 for the guy laying in the street, and because I'm being a good person I'm charged 50 bucks? Then what, sue the guy after he gets out for my money?
We are taxed a lot and the residents shouldnt' have complained, but the 50 bucks is a little out there as well.
Dude, that's a lot of blood coming out of that wound. I'm gonna call.
No, don't! I don't get paid until next week. Lets just wait until pay-day and see if it doesn't fix itself by then.
it should be $50 for every fake call. at least.
i dont think people mind the $1.50 so much as they mind the word "tax". but if the revenue is not coming from a "tax" then it has to come from some where and i would rather pay the $1.50 than the $50. in my city we have closed parks for no funding and they have been closed for years. people bitch about the closed parks. a vote was asked to have a $25 increase in property tax to fund the parks. it was voted down by a big margin. go figure! we still have closed parks and this has been on the ballot several times and been voted dwon each time. the word "tax" is a bad word? if no money is coming in to city, county, state and federal govt. how will public things be paid for?? i just dont understand people sometimes.
This is just going to hurt the lower classes more. Its making health care even less affordable for those with extremely low incomes that might not even qualify for Medicaid. I'm pretty sure its not going to cover the tax either.
Therefore more people are going to prolong calling emergency vehicles when needed just because of this. I swear America keeps going down hill everyday.
no one will call if it costs them $50. making calls that much will just make crimes rise..unless we all wanna run down to the police station and tell them ourselves =P
pay the 1.49 definitely. who wants to pay 50.00?
"Get to da Chopperr!"
That is bs.
If I was forced to choose, I'd just pay the $1.49 because really, people are going to stop phoning for help if it costs fifty bucks a pop.
I don't think either is right, the city should find different ways to get money out of people and the people shouldn't go crazy over 1.49. $50 a call? what if someone's in real danger or sees someone else in danger and they think "na, i really don't have that 50 to spend...We'll just see what happens..." or "Don't have the money so I'll handle it myself" People r insane, I didn't even think u could get charged for EMERGENCY CALLS, they already bill the hell out of us for getting in an ambulance, getting any care after that, so now people have to pay for making the call too...wow
but hey, chill people 1.49 vs $50, I can deal with a buck and some change but $50 na....
you already pay $400 or something every time an ambulance is sent to your location, whether you use it or not. that should be enough. we don't need to charge people for calling a number.
maybe the council decided to do that cause they get too many prank 911 calls and it ties up the phone lines thus causing people who really need help cant get through cause the dispatchers are answering prank calls instead.
dont charge 50 bucks just have the cops come over, knock on the door and hand you a ticket :D
if people stop playing with the 911 system than maybe they wouldnt need to charge. its just a way to tell people to stop tying up phones lines.
What the people in that town forgot is that those 911 dispatchers are PAID for that job. The phones and computers they sit at, someone had to buy those. The electricity for the call center has to come from somewhere. That buck and change that everyone gets charged goes to salaries, maintenance, upgrades, whatever the system needs to remain operational and efficient. If they didn't charged that buck and change where would the money come from to take care of these needs? I'm sure, especially in small towns, the funds that the tax payers have already paid in with their property taxes are already spent and then some. So, faced with people's outrage at the buck and change, the city said "ok, we need the money somehow, 50 bucks a pop!" What are they supposed to do, shut down 911? I'm sorry but you're not going to get volunteers for the dispatcher job, it is far too stressful. Those people deserve the salary they get and more. It can't be done for free. So a buck and change for everyone, I'd say it's a great deal if it gets an ambulance to my home before my mom dies of a heart attack, or police to my home before a robber beats me to death. Sounds like a steal to me! :)
If the question is which one is the 'better' option:
STFU and just pay the damn 1.49.
Its like car insurance. You pay the company a little money so they insure your car so that you don't have to pay the huge fees when someone in a hummer decides to run you over.
just pay $1.49. it's 49x worse than the $50 fee ==
Just pay $1.49..wtf...is this even a serious question ?
How can you even ask that question..
It's only 1.49 !
Haha. I think it's a scare tactic that'll make them shut up about the $1.50 charge