Leflore County EMS is only 17% publicly funded. For a public agency, we have to figure out the remaining 83% of the funding ourselves.
Our highest payor is Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance, but they only pay us at a 35% pay rate.
Our funding was capped in the Oklahoma constitution in the 1970’s.
We are asking for a 0.3% sales tax. This is only 3 pennies on a meal from McDonalds.
For just a few pennies on a medium pizza, you can:
1. Help ensure our ability to buy new ambulances (quarter-million to $300k each). We put 70,000 to 100,000 miles on each ambulance each year because our county is one of the largest in Oklahoma. (1,600 square miles)
2. Increase our ability to pay a decent wage to keep our staff and recruit new staff. We must pay our people better to keep them.
3. Allow us to add another ambulance crew during our peak hours. Our call volume has doubled since 2010 to 10,000 calls per year. We cannot keep up with the calls during our peak hours with only 6 ambulances in service.
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