It’s one thing to give preference to those who pay. It’s another thing altogether to show up, not having any fires to fight, and watch somebody’s house burn (presumably while saying “Wow, that sucks.”). It’s a simple matter of doing the right thing.
This is *not* really similar to the health care debate. 99.9% of that is about non-emergency situations - prescriptions, colds, aches and pains, and whatnot. If you’re going to compare this to health care, then a proper comparison would be doctors who are otherwise unoccupied let a patient bleed out and die in the ER because he doesn’t have insurance. Fortunately, our doctors are better than that and understand what the right thing to do.
Ask the country if medical care should be provided to all free of charge and you’ll probably start the same debate we’ve been having for years. Ask them if immediately life-saving medical care should be provided to all and the answer will be radically different. This depends, of course, on the willing participation of medical providers, but history has shown us that doctors and nurses do not hesitate to save lives in immediate danger and they do so by prioritizing those at most immediate risk, not by prioritizing those who can pay.
The mindset displayed in this story is nothing more than the Kitty Genovese story with a slightly different cast of characters.
Sorry, but the problem here is the cheap person who did not pay for the service.