$75? What dumb ass wouldn't pay that unless he was counting on free service if his house caught fire. If that's how their system works... you need to participate to benefit. Makes sense to me. Only a moron would opt out.. he suffered for his own stupidity.
Think about it this way... if you don't pay... and they'll still put your fire out... who'd EVER pay... which results in an unfunded fire department.
Would you feel sorry for him if he also didn't have fire insurance? Or just say "what a dumb ass" for not having fire insurance on his house too. No one's going to buy him a new free house because he's uninsured dumb-ass are they?
What they describe was common in South Carolina... your house would have a fire plaque on the front if you paid... and didn't if you didn't. BUT you could pay a ridiculous fee if they arrived and you didn't have a plaque... it was like 100 times the normal rate.
Sounds like the current health care fiasco, no? Why carry insurance if you can go to the ER and get your care for free (they can't turn you away)... so young healthy people opt out... so relatively mostly sick/elderly in health plans... so premiums are through the roof... so young healthy people can't afford it... and the cycle continues spirals out of control.
One possible fix is to allow hospitals to deny care if you can't pay... then everyone, by natural market forces, will sign up BEFORE they are sick, bringing healthy people into the pool, which will bring premiums down to affordable levels. That, or let the government take over every aspect of your life like a big nanny tit. That's Obama's theory... force you into health insurance to get the healthy young in the plans to balance all the old geezers in the plans, and to balance all the "freeloafers" who show up in ER's without coverage... the government doing what the market would do if the government just got the hell out of the way.
So yeah, they guy tried to save $75 a year to cover his ESPN cable channel upgrade.... and put his house on the line to do it... dumb ass, I say.
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