If you have seen the movie “Gangs of New York,” you know mid-19th-century New York City was a mess. Rival fire companies showed up at fires, fought one another for the right to fight the fire, and billed a large fee for “protecting” the building. It was tragically inefficient. The city decided raw competition wasn’t serving their needs. They made the common-sense decision to form a fire district.

Some people fail to see the parallel in President Barack Obama’s effort to make health care more efficient. Everyone pays. Everyone benefits. Socialism? How about “cooperation.” Care to disband your local fire district?

I wish Obama’s plan were more like the fire department model: single payer, controlling cost. Modern gangs of New York fought that tooth and nail. They won’t give up a huge pot of profit without a fight, patients be damned. Our health care costs twice that of any other country, with worse results.

Some of us will never have to call the fire department. Do you still want to cancel your fire district tax? We all benefit. We still can. It’s weird how some people love Medicare and the Veterans Affairs hospital but hate government health care.

Larry Winters

Cheney