What if the fire department was run like the health care industry? Imagine, your house is on fire and the fire department arrives on the scene. The first thing they do is check your ability to pay for their services. After all, they have a lot of overhead to pay for like advertising, stockholders' dividends, and a corporate CEO who makes $40 million a year. If you can't pay, you have your choice of other fire companies to call until you find one who will put out your fire at a price you can afford. Luckily, you have fire insurance that pays for fire protection. You wanted to hire Acme Fire Department because they're located just 2 blocks away. Unfortunately, your fire insurance company said you have to hire Budget Fire Company, located five miles away, because they're in the network of the Fire Maintenance Organization (FMO) that you belong to. They might take longer to get there, but at least you have a fire company to protect you. But after you've faithfully paid your premiums for years, conditions become very dry and a wildfire is burning out of control less than a mile from your home. Suddenly your fire insurance company decides to drop you because you're a bad risk and there's nothing you can do about it. You apply to another Fire Insurance company, but their premiums are a lot higher and they regard the recent wildfires in your community to be a pre-existing condition. They won't cover you for any fires due to the current drought. Essentially, if there is no profit to be made from insuring you, they would rather let your house burn. Then someone comes up with a crazy idea: What about having non-profit fire departments paid for by tax dollars? Naturally, all the "experts" in the Fire Fighting industry go on TV to tell us how that would never work. If there's no competition among fire companies, then they wouldn't be any good. Besides, do you really want YOUR tax dollars to be used to put out other people's fires? Fire protection is a luxury, not a right. Of course the Firefighting corporations would contribute millions of dollars in PAC money to members of Congress, who then would tell horror stories about how government run fire departments would lead to rationing of fire protection and panels to pick and choose who's house to save and which ones to let burn. Besides, everyone knows that a socialist, community run fire department is the first step toward communism. From http://my.quadsville.com/post/jeff61b/blog/what_if_the_fire_department_was_r un_like_the_health_care_ind.html
