By David Garrick

The San Diego Union-Tribune

SAN DIEGO — San Diego is raising the fees patients get billed for ambulance rides by 18% over the next three years, but City Council members argued Tuesday that insurance companies will pay the hikes — not individual patients.

The hikes, which the council approved unanimously, mean that for five consecutive fiscal years San Diego will have raised ambulance transport rates. The cumulative increase amounts to just under 32.6%.

City officials say the hikes will bring San Diego’s rates up to roughly the county average, raising questions of why the city’s rates had been so much lower than other local agencies.

The increases come with the city’s ambulance service in flux . A 19-month-old partnership with private ambulance companies has be

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