ROBERTSON COUNTY, Texas (KRHD) — Texas lawmakers recently introduced House Bill 3000 and Senate Bill 1377 — two proposals which could provide critical funding for emergency medical services in rural communities.
- House Bill 3000 and Senate Bill 1377 would create a state grant fund program for EMS and give counties with less than 69,000 residents up to $500,000 for to pay for new ambulances
- Counties with fewer than 10,000 residents could receive the maximum amount, while those with 10,000 to 68,750 residents could receive up to $350,000
- The fate of both bills remain uncertain, but Texas lawmakers will debate them in the coming weeks before whether deciding to advance the bills to the floor for a vote
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
"I'm glad that somebody recognized that there was this need because this need has been here for a while," said EMS Director, Steven Von Gonten.
In smaller counties like Robertson, the local EMS faces constant financial issues.
"Everything costs more now, so, you know, the truck chassis, the ambulance bills, all the parts that go into that, all of our medical supplies that go into the ambulances, the cost of fuel and just general operational costs and still being able to manage that money, it gets a little tight at times," Von Gonten said.
But Texas lawmakers want to lend a helping hand.
House Bill 3000 and Senate Bill 1377 would create a state grant fund program for EMS and give counties with less than 69,000 residents up to $500,000 for to pay for new ambulances.
15ABC asked Von Gonten how much of a difference would this grant make if the bill was passed.
"It'll be a game-changer for the small rural communities that don't have necessarily the high call volumes that some of the other larger agencies have."
The Robertson County EMS director tells15ABC ambulances cost anywhere between $300,000 to $350,000 on average — so this extra money would be a huge financial weight off our community's shoulders.
"To allow for us to have grant funding to help with a portion of that would take a tremendous strain off of our little rural community's economy," he said.
And he explained to15ABC why this is an issue we can't afford to ignore.
"This is sometimes a service that gets overlooked, and it's one of those things that you don't want to overlook it because you may need it someday, and if we're going to keep these services going in the smaller communities and be able to provide quality health care to our farmers and our ranchers and the people of the rural communities, we have to figure out a way to do that without burdening them with extra expenses."
