http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39516346/from/toolbar
What a sad story, but it brings the point home more clearly than anything I’ve seen recently. You can’t wait for your house to be on fire and then call for fire protection. It’s too late then. If this county in TN would have let the man pay his fee just just when he needed service, then why should any other resident continue to pay their annual fees for protection?
Kind of reminds me of the debate about the new health care reform bill – There’s a mandate in the law that by 2014 every American MUST have health insurance. Right now, the law has a minimal “fee or penalty” for those that don’t comply, yet health insurors are being told they won’t be allowed to turn down people for coverage.
Like the homeowner in the fire story above…how long will insurance companies survive if you can wait till you have a bad illness like cancer or a bad car wreck, then buy insurance on the way to the hospital…and pay the small “penalty?” The penalty/fee/tax for not buying must be significant enough to cause a consumer to think twice before not buying.
It begs the rhetorical question: “Why buy insurance and pay the premium for months or years when you don’t need it? Why not wait until just the right moment when that fire (oops – I mean illness) happens…then buy?”
Think about it……
