Why don't we need insurance to call the police or fire department?

Because we have SOCIALIZED police and fire protection, also education, roads and bridges, and dozens of other things. Because that's just the best way we've found to do these things, to make them available to everyone regardless of their financial status.

As time goes by, more and more of us believe health care should be added to this list. Nearly every other developed country uses a single payer plan, where health care providers are commercial, for profit, but the govt. handles the insurance, and everyone is covered.

President Obama promised to push for a single payer plan when he began his campaign for president, but soon afterwards he announced that he'd changed his mind and now he wanted a plan very similar to those proposed by GHW Bush and Bill Clinton.

The problem is that no politician of either party is able to propose any plan that might adversely affect the profits of the handful of corporations that run our health care system. Their profits are the highest priority of our health care plan! Actual health care comes somewhere below that.

/Because police and fire departments are public institutions and funded through tax money. Medical care is private and usually gets no funding from the outside.

It's because literally all DEMOCRATS expressly demand you need "insurance" to get medical care.

Decades ago, EVERYONE went to the provider of their own choice with NO concern over whether or not he might be "in network." At the end of the visit, you PAID HIM and more importantly YOU COULD AFFORD IT.

In literally all cases - everywhere - in all of known time - using force of law to insert third (or more) parties between provider and customer - regardless of the product or service involved - ALWAYS drives-up price and/or drives down quality and/or causes shortages. NO exceptions - anywhere - ever. For more than 100 years, Democrats have demanded we do that with health care and ever since we STARTED doing it and got the EXPECTED results, all Democrats have demanded we do EVEN MORE of it.

The fact is neither you nor anyone else has ever made a complaint about our "health care system" that Democrats didn't DELIBERATELY CAUSE.

Of course, YOU DO have "single payer" insurance for the Police and MOST of the area of the U.S. IS covered by SUBSCRIPTION Fire Service.

Actually, there are places where the fire department wil stand by and watch your house burn to the ground if you haven't paid them.

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/07/9272989...

no, you don't need insurance for medical care. a county hospital ER cannot turn anyone away, if you don't pay the bill, it gets paid by property taxes.