Pay-as-you-go emergency medical services not the recession 911 they seem

UPDATE: As some commenters have pointed out, Santa Rosa subcontracts its ambulance services to an outside provider. Consequently, the emergency EMS services discussed in this post do not include ambulance service.

That having been said, the Santa Rosa proposal proposes partnerships with ambulance services that could help reduce ambulance costs. Also, as this piece noted, many municipalities already charge for EMS services; in fact, some towns and counties in Southern California have been billing their citizens since the early 1980's.

Recently, some news outlets reported that the town of Santa Rosa, California, would begin charging for 911 calls and paramedic services. Hailing this as some sort of apocalyptic recessionary nightmare, the reporters seemed to suggest that this was a sign of vile things to come.