Firefighters stand by as familys house burns to the ground

[Publius]

You guys are making analogies that don't work. Sure, a Dr helping a patient with insurance VS not helping a patient without insurance makes perfect sense... when it isn't compared to this story. The way that analogy would work would be if the Dr went to the home of the patient without insurance and just stood there watching them die. Right, as you noted they were on the scene to fight a fire on the property of a neighbor who HAD paid. So a better analogy would be if the doctor made a house call to the patient with insurance and the patient without insurance lived next door. The fire company didn't make any money by allowing their customers house to burn down, did they? Bad business model. I dunno about that. I bet more people will opt-in to fire protection service and fewer people will "forget" to make their payments now that they know the fire department won't put out fires out of the goodness of their hearts. He also stated that he had the money on his scene to pay the firefighters, and this his neighbors also offered to pay upwards of 5x the $75 for the firefighters to put it out. Who refused. The man responsible for determining this was contacted on his cell phone who quickly said no so he could finish his game of Golf. That would be the only somewhat disturbing element to me -- if they had made contact with someone who did have the authority to enter into an ad hoc reimbursement agreement, and that person said no just to get back to golfing. This is why there's something wrong with Capitalism as an Economic model. Would his house have burned down in France or Denmark? Yes, because in France the firefighters would probably have been on strike to demand a 6th week of vacation and the right to retire at 40.

[MikePizzoff]

As a Medic, I'm not going to ask someone if they have insurance before I treat them. I don't care. my job isn't to process paperwork, my job is to keep someone alive long enough to get to the hospital. The idea that an EMT, Firefighter, Cop, Doctor or anyone should not render services to someone in need due to capital is a disgusting inhuman thought. This is what I was trying to convey. You did a much better job.

[EDukes]

I dunno about that. I bet more people will opt-in to fire protection service and fewer people will "forget" to make their payments now that they know the fire department won't put out fires out of the goodness of their hearts. You have to think about the folks who won't bother paying the $75 until they needed the fire department. The whole point of the $75 fee is so that fire fighting services can be made available. If people were only paying it because there was a fire, then the department wouldn't be able to go out to the area when they were needed. Also, the deaths of the animals seems a little odd to me. It took a while for the fire to travel from some barrells to the house. He tried fighting the fire with a garden hose before it reached the house. He then had time to argue over the phone with the department over billing. Just seems like an extended time period to not open the doors so that the pets could get out.