HEALTH
Emergency of Expanding Government

Emergency of Expanding Government

As localities seek to take over ambulance services from private providers, the reasons such services should stay private become apparent. ...
C. Mitchell Shaw

In an industry largely dominated by government monopoly, private ambulance services offer a great illustration of the importance of a free market. In fact, by competing not only with one another, but also government services, they show that — once again — the private sector is better able to handle almost anything. 

Granted, there are areas that clearly are the province of government. But those things are few. Everything else should belong to the private sector. Ambulance services were, once upon a time, all private companies. It is only in fairly recent history that government stepped in and took over that arena. In the ensuing decades, government has attempted — and in some places has succeeded — to create a monopoly in the ambulance industry.

Even still, there are private services competing in that marketplace. One such service is Thorne Ambulance Service, LLC in Greenville, South Carolina. After years in the ambulance industry, Ryan Thorne launched his company in 2010. He told The New American, “I went to the bank and tried to get a small loan to get started, and even though I had my whole business plan put together — all my numbers, figures, projections — I was 22 years old, so when I walked into the bank, I pretty much got laughed out of there. It was like they saw me as a kid trying to open up a lemonade stand.”

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