Quote:

As a fellow tax-payer, I'm happy to pay, to let you go without if you desire.

Well fellow tax payer, how do you feel about this scenario?
I go without a PFD, I don't die, but do to exposure/submerging/etc, I wind up a vegetable, needing full time care for the rest of my life.
No-one has that good of insurance, so eventually the tax payers will bear the burden. Yes, I paid taxes to, but the average person doesn't pay anywhere near enough in taxes to even put in dent long term health care.
So then what? Are you okay with the government raising your taxes because they need the revenue to take care of people like me?
Yes, even with a PFD I could end up in the same boat, but don't you think a little prevention is worth a pound of cure, especially when the price of the cure is getting unbearable?

Is personal freedom/choice more important than the toll a poor decision makes on society in general and your family loved ones in particular :-/