MEXICO – If the proposed statewide property tax-cap initiative is approved, Med-Care ambulance service could cease to exist for its 11 Oxford and Franklin county towns, the director says.

“If the towns are unable to raise the money to meet their contractual obligations, this company will fold,” said Med-Care Ambulance Director Dean Milligan. “It’s not a scare tactic. It’s reality.”

Based in Mexico, Med-Care Ambulance provides emergency medical response service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for 266 square miles in Oxford and Franklin counties.

This includes the towns of Andover, Byron, Canton, Carthage, Dixfield, Hanover, Mexico, Newry, Peru, Roxbury, Rumford and Dixfield’s village of East Dixfield.

Milligan said Med-Care has a signed contract to provide emergency medical service with the 11 towns through 2009.

But that agreement becomes moot if voters approve the tax cap and the 11 communities can’t raise their $12-per-capita subsidies, which, in the 2004 budget, totals $205,548.

“We are unique because we are funded by 11 towns, and how that tax cap’s going to affect those 11, who knows? But most towns are saying they will not be able to afford education,” Milligan said.

That’s why approval of Med-Care’s 2004 operational budget won’t be voted on until after Nov. 2.

“If the Nov. 2 vote goes through, and the tax cap is approved, then we’ll have to look at having an emergency meeting with all 11 towns, because we’re not going to be able to cut any money out,” Milligan said.

Of Med-Care’s 2004 budget of $1,869,280.89, 11 percent, or $205,548 is to be raised through town subsidies. Excepting $26,000 in other revenue, like donations, the remainder is raised through medical billing.

So if the towns can’t pay their subsidies, that money would have to be made up in fees charged to people using the ambulance service.

“But with people who are self-pay and uninsured, how do you go about collecting the user fee?” he asked.

That’s why Milligan believes that if the tax cap is OK’d, Med-Care, a nonprofit company, would die a slow death from the trickle-down effect.

“It would be a slow collapse of our system until our company wouldn’t be able to function. That would put 60 people out of work,” he said.

To make ends meet, they’d be forced to reduce services, cut loose an ambulance, and layoff staff, he said.

“We’re running an efficient operation without any frills and thrills. We have a bare minimum budget, so it’s not like we can go back to the drawing board and figure out what to cut,” Milligan said.

Losing one ambulance means Med-Care would only have one ambulance left for emergencies to cover the 11 towns.

“So regardless of whatever the (tax cap) impact was, the whole affect would be a change – in a dramatic manner – of our timely response,” Milligan said.

And, with only one ambulance, the company would also lose 50 percent of its revenue.

Fifty percent or 1,500 calls a year of Med-Care’s overall annual calls are hospital transfers, which are usually covered by insurance, Milligan said.

“I don’t know of any other ambulance service that would want to come in and do everything for free,” he said.