“Our Fight for First Responder Funding”

Decades of below cost Medi-Cal reimbursement, combined with Medi-Cal expansion, is crippling our ability to recruit and retain qualified emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics. Unfortunately, this issue has been building long before the pandemic started, and it now threatens to undermine the stability of California’s emergency and non-emergency ambulance transport infrastructure.

To address our retention and recruitment issues, ambulance providers need a Medi-Cal increase that ensures a sustainable living wage for caregivers, now and into the future. 

First-responders and patient advocates throughout California are asking Governor Newsom and State leaders to increase the Medi-Cal base rate for ambulance transports to $350, which is still below our cost of providing the service, but high enough to ensure we can offer sustainable living wages that attract new recruits and increase wages for current employees to improve retention.

Please visit FundFirstResponders.org to learn more, sign the petition and download social media tools to help us spread the word. 

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