If you are an American, your health insurance company (assuming that you have health insurance) stands between you and your doctor. If you need an emergency medical procedure, the first thing your doctor and any medical facility involved have to do is find out it your insurance company will cover it, and, if so, how much of it they will cover.

Let's apply that same idea to other services one might need in an emergency :   suppose, if your house caught fire, your local fire department (paid, let us assume, not by our taxes, but by private insurance companies) had to check first to see if you had insurance, and if so, find out how much of the cost of putting out the fire your policy would cover.

Or someone is breaking into your house, you pick up the phone to call the police, and. . . .

Would we find a system like that acceptable? And if not, then why are we willing to accept a health care system that operates that way?

Don Firth