Should I appeal this? If so, what would you say in an appeal letter?

I had a serious medical problem a couple of months ago that resulted in two incidences of EMS transporting me to the hospital after I called 911. (I was admitted for multiple-day stays after each transportation.) I found out later that our local ambulance/EMS service is out-of-network with my health plan and I now owe about $2800 for EMS transportation after my insurance, Anthem BCBS, paid its out-of-network fee.

This to me seems incredibly unfair and unreasonable – as a citizen who needed emergency treatment and called 911, I had zero input into who responded to my calls. This is especially the case here, because our local ambulance/EMS service has FIRST RIGHT OF REFUSAL for calls so I couldn’t call anyone else even if I wanted to unless EMS was unable to respond due to lack of capacity.

Is it worth the time and effort to appeal this? If so, how should I frame the appeal? Apparently ambulance authorities are exempt from state and federal balance billing laws as well. What a freaking racket.