I did not know this. The ambulance situation is a shambles and wildly differs from state to state and in what your health insurance provider (if you have one) may not make you aware of. The article includes a comparison of all states’ ambulance services.
Multiple reasons – not justifications, but reasons.
A municipality/county can’t or won’t fund EMS in its entirety: either there’s not a large enough tax base or voters don’t want to pay the taxes needed. A functional EMS system isn’t cheap to operate (even with volunteers) and it’s not uncommon to contract it out to private EMS companies in areas that can’t afford full time EMS.
Arguably it’s also to prevent abuse. You’ll get a minority of “super users” that don’t actually need an ambulance and call for some of the most asinine reasons. They’ll lie and say they have chest pain when all they really want is a free taxi ride across town. Or hypochondriacs, people with a mild cold, etc. Some of these people will call multiple times a day, every day.
In the USA we really can’t refuse transport even if we know it’s abuse, and proving abuse is damn near impossible. The problem is a lot of the aforementioned either can’t/won’t pay regardless, or are on public aid and won’t receive the bill. The fucked up part is the costs incurred by those people are carried by those that will pay.
Is the USA part of Northern Territories?
No, but I can only speak as to what I know.
Other countries using the same or similar logic/reasons would be unsurprising. People aren’t fundamentally different regardless of where they live, and culturally Australia has a lot in common with the USA … “good” and bad.