Your analogy has problems. Having been a member of a rural association (paying member to have rural coverage from a volunteer fire department). It’s more like you live in a flood plain, you choose not to pay for flood insurance then when you get flooded, you expect the company to pay you for your losses anyway.
It only costs us $20 a year (at the time, several years ago), if you did not pay for the rural fire department - they would save people and animals but would not save the house. The annual cost of $20 is far, far less than people pay for government run fire departments. Ours were volunteers, they did not get paid, they would have pancake breakfasts and such to help pay for the upkeep on the equipment. BUT, you don’t want to pay your $20 and still expect them to save your house? Doesn’t work that way - move to the city with much higher taxes and you get that “free” coverage from the fire department.
I have absolutely no problem paying for a service as long as I know what the costs are up front but to be hit by a $20K bill is a little much for guys suiting up and spraying some oversized waterhoses (i know it involves more than that; i’ve been through LEO training)