Healthcare Financing
If you are fortunate, it’s an experience you never have to go through: a frantic dash to an emergency room because you or a loved one has been stricken ill or been injured. Unfortunately, this occurs far too often — many times resulting from an automobile accident.
Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes kill someone every 31 minutes and injure someone every two minutes, according to recent statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While drunk, inattentive or reckless drivers cause accidents that kill or cause serious injuries, their impact is far broader. Traffic accidents overburden emergency rooms, doctors, and nurses, thereby straining the entire emergency medical system.
That is why last month, we made a proposal to the San Diego County Board of Supervisors that would provide approximately $3 million in increased annual funding for emergency medical services. Best of all, instead of taxpayers footing the bill, funding would come from problem drivers, who are sometimes at the root of automobile accidents.
The Board approved our proposal and the $3 million will go to the Emergency Medical Services “Maddy” fund, used to support critical emergency and trauma services for the region.
The Maddy fund was established by the Board of Supervisors in November 1988. Funding comes from assessments on fines, penalties, and bail forfeitures that courts collect for certain criminal offenses and motor vehicle violations.
Last year, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 1773, permitting county boards of supervisors throughout the state to apply an additional levy in the amount of $2 for every $10 imposed on fines, penalties, and bail forfeitures.
The resolution adopted by the Board of Supervisors on March 20, 2007, established an additional $2 levy on fines, penalties, and forfeitures. The funds will be used for pediatric trauma care, trauma hospitals, physicians providing emergency care, and the County Health and Human Service Agency’s Emergency Medical Services.
By approving this resolution, the Board of Supervisors is taking advantage of every tool available to the County to strengthen trauma and emergency medical services, key lifelines for county residents. More money for emergency medical services means more people will have a greater chance of living following a disaster or accident. Improving trauma and emergency medical services is a critically important achievement now, more than ever.
San Diego County’s population continues to grow — currently topping three million. More commuters on our roads increases the likelihood of accidents. In 2005, there were 716,172 visits to a San Diego County emergency department. These staggering numbers, combined with the population increase, make the need for more funding clear. Emergency and trauma room doctors and nurses need more money to treat the growing number of patients.
Physicians need more and better equipment. The public needs better services. The Board of Supervisors wants to help our doctors and the public get what they need. Generating more revenues for the Maddy fund is just one part of our many efforts to strengthen the region’s medical system. With this vote, hospitals and physicians will now have access to additional monies to continue to provide care in emergency rooms and provide trauma services. This will be a benefit for all residents of the region.