S2 E12: ESSENTIAL PARAMEDICINE FEAT. NICK NUDELL

So how do you change the funding source of EMS? A very good question.

This year in Colorado, we were successful in passing an essential service bill.

So...

We worked with our legislators.

One of my legislators wrote and was the original sponsor for a bill to make EMS an essential service.

We, through a lot of negotiations, a lot of discussions, that bill changed and adjusted over time before it was finally passed.

So it made EMS essential, but did not include the funding piece.

Okay.

That is what we're going to take on next.

So now we get to go back to the legislature and say, if we're essential, now you need to fund EMS.

Let's talk about EMS as an essential service because...

You will see a lot of people on social media say EMS just needs to be an essential service.

I get the feeling that that means something to them in their head, but it doesn't necessarily what they think about that, what that means in their head doesn't necessarily translate what that means on paper, like as if that that's a magic wand that suddenly makes EMS something that it's not.

So give me a little bit of nuance into what essential service means.

Yeah, that's a very good question, Jimmy.

And I'll try not to get too technical because it's actually the topic of my PhD dissertation.

Okay.

So I could talk about it for many hours.

Yep.

Essentially, essentially, an essential service.

See what you did there.

Yes.

Essential services are something that actually are found in the Constitution.

So in the United States Constitution, services that need to be provided by the government are defined there.

So that's actually the Federal Mail Service, the military service, things like that are defined there.