NEW YORK POST
By Carl Campanile | April 20, 2026
These price tags are enough to make you sick.
The FDNY is considering hiking ambulance and emergency medical bills by double digits — blaming the squeeze on patients’ pockets on inflation and coming pay increases for union workers.
The proposed hikes could send an ambulance ride through the 911 system soaring 29%, while “treatment in place” services would balloon an eye-watering 42%.
The FDNY is eyeing double-digit hikes for ambulance and emergency medical bills.Christopher Sadowski
“The Fire Department is proposing this rule because of increased costs and to help offset the City’s cost of providing these services,” the FDNY said in a statement proposing the increase.
The unions representing ambulance workers and supervisors released a statement slamming a wage gap, where EMS workers are paid less than firefighters and other uniformed first responders, which contributes to a staffing crisis and longer response times.
“The City may be increasing what it charges for ambulance service, but unless it addresses the massive pay disparities for EMTs and paramedics — who are mostly Black, Hispanic, and women — it won’t have enough trained medical personnel to operate or provide emergency care on those ambulances,” union leaders Oren Barzilay and Vincent Variale said in a statement.
Barzilay is president of Local 2507, which represents EMTs, paramedics and inspectors, while Variale heads Local 621 of the Uniformed Emergency Medical Service Officers Union.