Countywide : Some Cities Offering Emergency-Aid Plan

In a season when no program is safe from the budget ax and few politicians even whisper about raising taxes, a handful of Orange County fire departments might be on to something.

The departments have successfully persuaded thousands of people to tax themselves as much as $36 a year in exchange for unlimited emergency medical service. It’s an insurance policy of sorts, considering a single visit by the paramedics can run into the hundreds of dollars.

With the added revenue, some cash-strapped cities have made significant improvements in fire service that would have been impossible without the added income. At the very least, the subscriptions have helped other fire departments hold the line against cuts.

Huntington Beach, Santa Ana, Orange, Fullerton, La Habra and San Clemente offer residents voluntary paramedic subscription programs, and at least three other fire agencies in the county might soon create their own services. Eventually, subscribers might receive paramedic coverage in any city with a subscription service.

Persuading residents to pay more money to government during an economic downturn is not as difficult as it might sound, fire officials said.

“We get calls all the time from residents who want to know about the service and what they’re paying for,” said Anaheim Fire Chief Jeff Bowman. Once people understand what we’re doing, they want the service, he said.

Anaheim is one of only a few cities that returns all subscription revenue back into emergency medical programs, which Bowman said is an additional selling point for wary taxpayers who want their extra fees to fund real improvements in service.

About 41,000 households--or about 40% of all households--in Anaheim subscribe, and about $1.5 million was generated last year. Paramedic service fees for non-subscribers totaled about $750,000.

Bowman credits revenue from the 6-year-old service for helping pay for more paramedics, who now staff fire stations throughout the city. In Huntington Beach, subscription funds have been used to double the number of paramedic units.

Other cities have not matched Anaheim’s success in luring subscribers and generating revenue.

Until recently, only about 1% of Santa Ana households subscribed to that city’s paramedic service, which nonetheless generated $583,000 last year. But because of Santa Ana’s financial problems, the revenue went into the city’s general fund rather than back to the Fire Department, said Allen Carter, Santa Ana’s fire chief.

Extra income hasn’t led to increased funding in Fullerton either, where Fire Operations Chief John Cooper said the subscriptions have “helped us maintain our level of service.”

And some cities are even less fortunate. In San Clemente, where about 10% of the city’s residents pay $35 for a year’s worth of emergency medical service, the paramedic program still loses money, leading some officials to consider cutting costs by contracting ambulance service to a private firm.

The precise terms of each service vary from city to city. Most subscriptions apply to all residents of a given household and cover emergency medical care performed by paramedics. Many programs don’t cover charges incurred if a patient requires emergency room treatment or needs ambulance transportation.

People interested in the subscription service can call their local fire department.