In 2021, Governor Kim Reynolds signed into law, the ability for Iowa Counties to designate Emergency Medical Services as essential. This law was the culmination of years of hard work by the Iowa Emergency Medical Services Association. The law allowed each county board of supervisors to decide if they wanted to designate EMS as essential and put to the voters the option of up to a $0.75 tax per $1000 of valuation to be used specifically for EMS. In order for the tax to be imposed, 60% of the county voters must approve the measure.
As we enter the election season once again, this measure is going to be on the ballot for many Iowa Counties in November. Currently, voters in 12 Iowa Counties have approved the measure and a secure funding source for EMS has been put into place. Only two counties have voted it down since 2021. The board of supervisors in more than 18 additional Iowa Counties have designated EMS as an essential service and placed the measure to be voted on in upcoming elections. Multiple other counties have started the process to designate EMS as essential with the hopes of future ballot measures.
I had the honor of being part of a documentary on the EMS Crisis in American which is now available for viewing on Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Honorable-But-Broken-EMS-Crisis/dp/B0D5T945PZ The documentary is narrated by Actress Sarah Jessica Parker and produced and directed by Bryony Gilbey who is a former CBS News 60 Minutes and ABC producer and mother of three EMS professionals. It is also produced by Richard Diefenbach who is a former broadcast news journalist (ABC/CBS/FOX). This documentary outlines the crisis that EMS is in throughout the United States, but also features Iowa and other states who are actively working on essential service funding.
No one likes an increase in taxes, but when the public is educated about the crisis, the support can be overwhelmingly positive! Funding alone does not solve all of the issues in EMS, but it does provide the safety net we need to maintain, enhance, and improve the services we provide. We now have a responsibility to be good stewards of the funding and prove to the public that their support is truly essential. Dave Edgar
I posted feedback on LinkedIn post but as an EMS SME with PRI, we created of an "EMS Essential toolkit" that is diverse to many if not all areas of Iowa (and beyond) was done through COVID-19 public health workforce cooperative agreement with CDC, HHS, IA HHS EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS AND EMS, and Webster County Health Dept/Public Health, who have all projects and services done that would be great benefit to not only EMS Essential process but also substantial in many deliverables to be resources for PH, EMS, leadership, stakeholders, etc.
Although many more opportunities could have been beneficial as well, there was still great opportunities completed.
The questions of where these are, is the biggest issue as well as why…