It’s understandable that Vashon Island Fire & Rescue’s board of commissioners wants to collect fees for ambulance service. The majority of those fees are, apparently, covered by insurance companies, and who wants to subsidize the insurance industry? Collecting fees will add a little more to the fire department’s coffers, presumably offsetting how much the tax-funded department has to collect in revenues from Islanders.

But Commissioner Gayle Sommers and some members of the department raise important concerns about this new approach. Here on Vashon, where a large number of elderly people — determined to remain independent as long as they can — live on their own, it’s likely these fees could prove a hardship. Many of our older residents are covered only by Medicare, and Medicare, it appears, does not cover non-emergency ambulance costs unless the patient is homebound.

It’s thus possible, then, that an elderly person could fall and sprain her ankle, call 911 and get transported to the Vashon Health Center. Under this scenario, according to the department’s initial understanding of the complex world of Medicare reimbursements, she, not Medicare, would be asked to pay $200 for that transport to the health center. And as acting Chief Mike Kirk points out, even if the bill were a hardship, she’d likely pay it. Such is the integrity of the Greatest Generation.

Tuesday night, after The Beachcomber’s deadline, the commissioners were to revisit this issue and decide if they should drop the $200 on-Island fees. If it’s true that those costs could be passed on to Islanders, especially those covered by Medicare, the on-Island fees should be lifted. It’s expensive enough for those on fixed incomes to live on Vashon. Let’s collectively share these on-Island fees and not make it that much harder for our elderly neighbors to remain independent on Vashon.