26 November 2005

Will An Ambulance Be There For You?

The demise of Colorado's no fault auto insurance is killing Colorado's emergency medical system.

Statewide, 43 percent of ambulance services for vehicle crashes went unpaid in 2004, a 120 percent increase from 2001[.] . . In the same period, coverage of medical costs by auto insurance dropped 40 percent at hospitals in the state. Those hospitals estimate they lost $81 million in revenue as a result[.]


When you stop paying for services, they go away. Somehow, Republicans in Colorado don't understand that fact. They think you can eliminate insurance coverage for emergency medical care and slash government spending (as a failure to pass Referendum C would have implied) and things won't go to pot. It doesn't work that way.

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