Arkansas lawmakers hear urgent pleas as rural ambulance services verge on collapse

PERRYVILLE, Ark. — County leaders and ambulance providers told the Senate Insurance & Commerce committee that rural ambulance services across Arkansas face an immediate funding crisis that threatens patient safety and local access to emergency care.

Perry County Judge Toby Davis and Perryville Mayor John Rotherm described repeated cases in which no ambulance was available for critical calls, including a stroke and a child seriously injured by a dog, and said mutual-aid responses sometimes took 45 minutes or more. "We need some help," Judge Davis told the committee, and he outlined a local plan to hold a Feb. 25 quorum-court special meeting to consider a voter-approved sales tax or a personal-property assessment to subsidize service.

The county officials said their current private ambulance operator maintains one ambulance and struggles to sustain a second. Local estimates presented at the hearing put operating cost at roughly $15,000 per ambulance per month, and Perry County officials said they are targeting about $240,000 in transitional funding to support a second unit for roughly a year while a permanent assessment takes effect.

Industry witnesses from the Arkansas Ambulance Association and providers including…