Companion bills under consideration in Trenton would finally designate emergency medical services as essential statewide. Yet as written, the bills threaten to bench volunteer rescue squads and could hurl communities into a crisis, pushing services toward a police-style paid model that would balloon municipal budgets, critics say.

“It’s been in discussion for several years,” Mark Pojednic, Barnegat Light First Aid Squad captain, said recently. “It started with good intention.”