Lets Privatize Fire Departments ;-)

It's an election year, so Health Care is in the air again. I don't know what the answer is, but there is no denying that there is a problem. My biggest beef with the market-based advocates is their "anything else would be socialist medicine" hypocrisy. The problem is, there are common examples where this argument falls apart. In conversation, everyone I have talked to who is rabbidly "anti socialized medicine" has scoffed at the following suggestion:

1) Announce that in five years all publicly-funded fire departments will be privatized.
2) Everyone will be eligible to purchase fire response insurance. Most people will get it through their employers.
3) Fire insurance can be administered (and denied, before and/or after "treatment") just like medical insurance.

So imagine that world!

You get home and see smoke coming out of a window, and you get your fire rescue insurance card out. You start calling fire departments and verifying that they take your insurance. A firehouse that says it does accept your insurance responds to the fire with a single of its smallest trucks, but you live on the 10th floor of a condo tower! You're pissed! You told them over the phone that you live on the 10th floor!

The fireman says he understands your frustration, but the fire ladder is a specialist that requires a referral from the puny fire truck. That's okay though! The fireman sees the smoke too and agrees that the ladder should come. At least the ladder and the small truck work in the same group, so they're both covered by your insurance (whew!). So your abode is burning inside, but the ladder makes it on time to wet the ashes. The good news is that you only have to pay a co-pay and your deductible on the spot. The rest is covered by insurance.

Small problem: a post-investigation by the insurance company says that the ladder was never necessary. The fire was small enough so that the fireman should have climbed the stairs, entered the condo, it put it out from inside. So the insurance denies payment to the firehouse, and the firehouse needs payment from you.

That, to me, sounds like the kind of fire rescue system I would like to live under. And God help you if you lost your job (and fire rescue insurance) right before the house caught on fire! Yes sir! That sounds swell!

So it's election time again and Health Care is in the air, but lets have an honest dialogue about it, about what is best for the country, and cut the "socialist medicine" garbage out of the dialogue. I haven't met a person yet who would like the privatized fire rescue scheme.

I was reminded of the need to change our Health Care system again after watching this PBS Frontline special: Sick Around the World.

Thoughts?