Actually in a round about way you do pay a premium for the fire dept and police dept. Let me rephrase you don't but buisnesses do. More often then not when a big company opens a store they will purchase an aperatus for the county or city, same goes for police. Any time a chemical or even a shipping company opens a ware house or plant guess who pays for the haz-mat training and aperatus... The new company. If a company has a spill they purchase new equipment for the response team as part of the fine. The other part of that premium is S.P.L.O.S.T. funds and not to mention speeding tickets, fines, fees, taxes. I am sorry you and you child had to wait all night in an ED but chances are there people there that were sicker than he was ( did you contact your pcp before rushin of to the ED chances are it would have saved you a trip). The reason you pay a premium for health care is because we use specalized equipment that is more or less 1 time use. Do you have any idea how much EMS and EDs hemorage on a daily basis because of Medicare and Medicaid? The group slated to run this new program run the aformemtioned ones. I agree our health system is broke, but governmet health insurance is not the answer.