Regulation of Local Government Services

The following posting contains an email to ABC News’ John Stossel in response to a report Stossel did on regulation. The email speaks for itself:

I own a private, non-emergency ambulance service in Northwest Arkansas. On 01/01/09, private ambulance services [were] no longer allowed to transport patients in one of the cities we have served for over 25 years. The city of Fayetteville, along with eight smaller cities, has formed an ambulance authority that [now has] exclusive rights to all emergency and non-emergency transfers within the nine cities. ...Essentially, the Fayetteville City Council has decided to eliminate any competition and charge whatever it wants. My service currently has contracts with two hospitals in Fayetteville and charges the minimum amount allowed by Medicare ($195.67 + $6.87 per mile) for any transports for these facilities. We have competed directly with the government-owned service for 25 years, and, quite frankly, run circles around them. In response, they had taxpayers pay $100,000 for a bogus study that recommended, lo and behold, that they be the only provider in town. [Now] transports in Fayetteville will cost patients $523.34 + $10.74 per mile. That is at least 2.64 times what they pay private services today. Health care facilities affected by the enormous price increase are upset, but they have made little progress in eliminating this government monopoly.¹⁴²