> Oh I know it will not happen. Because pig headed NJ towns won't give up their fiefdoms. You'd rather drowned in taxes and make grand speeches rather than regionalize schools, fire, police, ems.

We're talking about EMS and Fire, not police and schools. How exactly do you think volunteers who don't get paid for their time are driving up taxes by having them be town based? And before you say equipment, it'd be the same amount either way and it would be even more expensive because the volunteers do fundraising to cover part (or sometimes even all) of the cost. Firehouses service an area, you can't just close them all and send them from the "central" firehouse 40 minute away. Same goes for ambulances. Police have patrol areas so you could do that but, just in case you weren't aware of this, fire trucks and ambulances don't just cruise around looking for fires or patients. So, do tell, what are these great savings that you imagine could be had by switching to a paid, regionalized EMS or Fire service?

> Because it isn't. Not to this issue. I live in a part of NJ where we have actual, paid EMS. The ambulance comes when I call it. What a miracle. Can I or the city control insurance? No. Are we better off for having a public EMS? Yes.

This may be shocking to you, but...the exact same thing happens here only without the bill for however many thousands of dollars the ambulance company or hospital charges. I've lived in NJ for nearly 5 decades, always in towns with volunteer ambulance corps, and that's always been the case. If for some reason a crew can't be raised, one from a mutual aid town comes. And don't tell me that that "can't" happen with a paid squad, because it absolutely does. Economics dictates that they run as close to the minimum number of rigs as possible and sometimes that isn't enough and they need backup from another company or hospital. Further, EMS pays shit. It's embarrassing how low it is and they're having problems with both high churn rates and difficulty hiring so you know what happens? Empty rigs because there's no crew.

> You want to solve all of healthcare... I applaud you and we'd probably agree. I just want normal, functioning emergency response.

Yes, you're fucking right that we should "solve" healthcare. I just think it might be a good idea to do it before we do something that will make things objectively worse.

> It is idiotic when it breaks down and no ambulance responds when called.

And yet I never actually see that happening. But yeah, lets throw out a system that works and saves money for a clusterfuck nightmare that has people literally begging rescuers to call them an Uber for their crushed leg because that's preferable to them than adding to their already crushing bills. Great idea.