Why did Officer Forbis insist that John take an ambulance instead of driving himself to an urgent care, to the extent of threatening to arrest him for driving impaired? John says Forbis did so after he mentioned having insurance. Could it be that the Fire Department's ambulance service is an important source of revenue for the City, and collecting from an insurance company is more certain than from an uninsured individual? This is from a recent story in ELi (EastLansingInfo):

 

East Lansing Fire Chief Randy Talifarro said that calls to ELFD, including for ambulances, are down about a thousand in number over the last year because the City’s population has dropped and the absence of big games means far fewer calls.

That means that ELFD income that is normally generated from medical insurance payments for ambulance calls is way down. But expenses are not down; personnel still have to get paid and trained, and equipment still has to be maintained.