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It's not hard. Limited only by your imagination. Emergency calls dispatched to competing ambulance/hospitals. Competing emergency dispatch services, say 911, 9

It's not hard. Limited only by your imagination. Emergency calls dispatched to competing ambulance/hospitals. Competing emergency dispatch services, say 911, 922, 933,... Customized emergency dispatch services - We'll have a life flight helicopter on call for only $99 a month! Plus any ideas from millions of people looking out for their best interests.

blah32497 13y ago
Or you have just one number that has a broker that gets you the best rate with the fastest, or most appropriate response time. When it's less busy, the more affordable companies do most of the work - when it's busier, the more expensive ones fill in the service gap.
nikatwork 13y ago
Everything old is new again! We could have rival ambulance gangs battling to take custody of an unconscious patient, just like the New York fire crews of the 1800s. [1] [1] http://jason-cochran.com/blog/when-gangs-of-thugs-put-out-your-fires-boss-tweed-obamacare-and-big-pharma/ http://jason-cochran.com/blog/when-gangs-of-thugs-put-out-yo...
leot 13y ago
This seems like "in the long run" eventually-we'll-get-to-933-then-everything-will-be-better thinking, and if so it lies at the root of the problem: market forces are non-stationary, making equilibrium-based-reasoning necessarily flawed. Most of those who work all day every day selling X have consistently been able to develop and exploit profitable inefficiencies more quickly than the market can correct them. As such, the success of such proposed free-market solutions depends on the particulars of how the system's higher-level dynamics are parameterized. In other words, naive deregulation and free-market-introduction will not reliably improve things, and could make (/definitely have made) things much much worse. Just as there's no communist utopia, there's no laissez-faire promised land.
cesarbs 13y ago
No, no, no, please don't promote the idea that having multiple numbers is a good thing. Coming from Brazil where such thing is the case, I can tell you the moment you have multiple numbers people have no clue what number to call on an emergency.

blah32497 13y ago

Or you have just one number that has a broker that gets you the best rate with the fastest, or most appropriate response time. When it's less busy, the more affordable companies do most of the work - when it's busier, the more expensive ones fill in the service gap.

nikatwork 13y ago

Everything old is new again! We could have rival ambulance gangs battling to take custody of an unconscious patient, just like the New York fire crews of the 1800s. [1] [1] http://jason-cochran.com/blog/when-gangs-of-thugs-put-out-your-fires-boss-tweed-obamacare-and-big-pharma/ http://jason-cochran.com/blog/when-gangs-of-thugs-put-out-yo...

leot 13y ago

This seems like "in the long run" eventually-we'll-get-to-933-then-everything-will-be-better thinking, and if so it lies at the root of the problem: market forces are non-stationary, making equilibrium-based-reasoning necessarily flawed. Most of those who work all day every day selling X have consistently been able to develop and exploit profitable inefficiencies more quickly than the market can correct them. As such, the success of such proposed free-market solutions depends on the particulars of how the system's higher-level dynamics are parameterized. In other words, naive deregulation and free-market-introduction will not reliably improve things, and could make (/definitely have made) things much much worse. Just as there's no communist utopia, there's no laissez-faire promised land.

cesarbs 13y ago

No, no, no, please don't promote the idea that having multiple numbers is a good thing. Coming from Brazil where such thing is the case, I can tell you the moment you have multiple numbers people have no clue what number to call on an emergency.