The Air Ambulance That Saved This Veteran May Not Be There Tomorrow

This content was created by a team that works independently from the Washington Examiner newsroom.PARTNER CONTENT – When Navy Veteran Dan McKeaney and his wife set out for a motorcycle ride in 2022, they didn’t know they were riding toward disaster.A sudden blown tire triggered a devastating crash. Left with multiple traumatic injuries, Dan’s survival came down to minutes. An emergency air ambulance crew rushed to the scene, stabilized him, and flew him to a specialized trauma center. Dan survived, recovered, and now credits that flight crew with saving his life. For millions of rural Veterans, that vital lifeline is fading fast.Millions of Veterans and their families live in rural America, where the nearest trauma center, stroke center, or other specialized hospital may be hours away by ground ambulance. When a heart attack, stroke, or traumatic injury occurs, geography can become a matter of life and death. Emergency air medical crews can bring advanced treatment directly to a patient and get them to the right hospital when there isn’t time for a long drive.Yet Washington has allowed the Medicare payment system supporting these lifesaving services to fall badly out of date.Medicare patients account for roughly 40 percent of all air ambulance transports, yet the Medicare program reimburses only about 59 percent of the actual cost per flight. Because this reimbursement system has not been meaningfully updated in over 25 years, it has failed to keep pace with today’s operational expenses. This massive funding gap creates an unsustainable model that directly threatens access to lifesaving emergency medical services, particularly in rural communities.This isn’t just a debate in Washington over Medicare reimbursement. For rural communities and Veterans, the consequences are real. An air medical base that can no longer remain open means an aircraft may have to come from farther away or not at all. For a patient who is hemorrhaging, having a stroke, or suffering a heart attack, those additional minutes matter and can be a matter of life or death. Inadequate Medicare payments threaten to close local bases, increase wait times, and put lives at risk.The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has recognized this challenge. In 2024, the VA worked with Veterans Service Organizations and first responders to stop proposed cuts to the VA reimbursement rate that would have matched Medicare. If these cuts had been enacted, emergency air medical bases across the country would have closed. This bought time, but the underlying issue remains – Medicare woefully underpays for emergency air medical services. Protecting rural healthcare means fixing the broken Medicare system before access to air ambulance emergency services disappears. That’s why the Save Our Air Medical Resources (SOAR) Campaign is working with Veterans, seniors, rural health advocates, patients, and emergency medical professionals to protect access to these lifesaving services. The SOAR Campaign believes that a Veteran’s ZIP code should not determine whether lifesaving emergency care is within reach.Congress already has a bipartisan path forward. The Protecting Air Ambulance Services for Americans Act (S.2518/H.R. 4792) would require the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to modernize Medicare’s outdated reimbursement system using current cost data. This legislation directly addresses the core problem-failing to update payments-ensuring that air ambulance services remain available in rural and Veteran communities. Supporting this bill is a concrete step toward preserving access to lifesaving emergency care.Dan survived because an emergency air ambulance crew was there when he needed one. The next Veteran facing a life-threatening emergency deserves that same chance. Congress needs to modernize the air ambulance Medicare reimbursement system that has been left behind. The Protecting Air Ambulance Services for Americans Act provides that clear path forward.