Thanks as always for being human!

Zendo- Certainly mandatory insurance seems somewhat socialist, but what I was referring to was the nature of the beast: we all pay in but don’t all get a pay out.

The nig four are not used by everyone, this is true. But generalizations aboout the common usage of insurance is more illustrative than examining individual situations, which are different with everyone. That said though, with the reforms in pensions and health care I’v epreviously suggested, those insurances would be totally unnecessary for all of us.

Thanks for the thoughts.

If you look at the history – Lloyds of London covering shipping, say – it doesn’t look like socialism.

And even your big 4 are questionable. I don’t have life insurance. I have no dependents, so I don’t need life insurance. My 401K’s which are not part of my estate per se (they don’t go through probate but are paid as soon as a death certificate is available) contain more than enough money for cremation. Only people with dependents (kids say, or a non-working spouse) need life insurance.

I am glad to have health coverage for emergencies, but do we need health insurance for viagra? The psycho-active drugs perscribed in this country look like mass addiction, so I don’t think that has helped… or the latest is botox injections to reduce underarm persperation. Yeah, that’s how I want to spend my money…..

I had an idea yesterday, that I would like to share with you and with your readers and fellow bloggers:

WHAT IF.. families, towns and cities in this nation were to “ADOPT” a family, town or city in the storm ravaged area? For example: I might adopt a family of four.. and either provide for them, or share with them from what I have of: bedding, kitchen items, clothing, furniture, personal toiletry items and makeup, toys for the children, tools for the rebuilding.. etc.. Towns might provide building materials, or even donated labor, etc..Churches might donate bibles, etc..

WHAT COULD WE DO.. to help a people that have lost it all? WHAT LENGTH WOULD WE GO TO.. to make a difference in the lives of others?

If you would like to look at this closer with me, i would appreciate your help in researching what would be needed to pull this off. Perhaps fellow bloggers here, could post on the same, and in the blogosphere, as we all know.. we CAN get the word out. Our prayers are wonderful.. our ASSISTANCE is that faith in action.

Feel free to visit my blog, for more info. Better still.. blog post on it and see what you find in your readership of the desire to render assistance. I will be doing some research today, to see what can be done.

Blessings to your readers..and may peace and solidarity prevail in our nation today.

Phoenix- From the way I see it, insurance shouldn’t be about “winning,” especially since the consumer is already the loser if they come in for a claim. Furthermore, in Vegas, you know the score before you get there. With insurance, they’d never sell a single policy that wasn’t mandated by law if the were as upfront as you are being in this comment.
Thanks for adding your two cents.

Jessica- Nice to hear from you again. My essay(s) on health care offer some suggestions for reform that would pretty much do away with the present incarnation of health insurance, and the examples you cite are prime reasons why the system we have now should be scrapped.

And it should be illegal for insurers to treat their policy holders as they do. Especially when all lenders require insurance coverage for real estate and auto loans. The insolence of the insurance companies is akin to inhuman behavior. Again, all to satisfy the overbearing greed of the major owners and upper corporate structure.

Glyn- Thanks for joining in. I agree with all of your points of course, including the way people act once they have insurance and think they are protected and can act as they want. If insurance is procured to alleviate financial trouble in the case of an accident or catastrophe, it really doesn’t make much sense to actively seek out such things, unless your only intent is to get the system to pay you off (at the expense of the rest of the consumers.)

Chandira- These insurance companies could earn even more money if they streamlined their “nice” strong arm tactics a bit and just went door-to-door with a couple of mob enforcers and demanded their protection money.
At least, this is how they make you feel if you ever try to get what you’ve paid for.

Stacey- The insurance industry has somewhere around $400 billion nestled away in surplus funds to pay claims. Even if the damage from Hurricane Katrina comes in at $50 billion, their nest egg would be plenty secure. (Non natural disasters are surely much less cumulatively than that too.)

Health insurance is about the biggest joke around, itself responsible for the rising costs of medical care by complicating the system, requiring more and more middle men (who have to get paid too) to just interpret the maze of regulation (self-imposed by the insurers) to get a claim paid. Expensive technology is artificially high, again to increase profitability of health care, which to me is antithetical to the creed “do no harm.”
And don’t get me started about the pharmaceuticals…
And I don’t think that the answer is all that difficult to solve, once the main problem is recognized and admitted for what it is: The insurance industry is a scam. (For more of my reform thoughts on health care, please find the four related essays in the archive listing.)
Thanks for the comments, and I don’t mean you any disrespect with my indictment of the industry you work in. We all have to make a living somehow, and this is the system in which we operate. For now. Hope to hear from you again.

Brian- You might look into a course on how to lengthen your attention span. Not every topic of worth can fit into the 10 second sound bite. In fact, depth of subject is a prerequisite to critical thinking and problem solving. Cheers!

Fred- Your points about under-educated (about their job, that is) adjusters are valid. I only touch on the most visible aspects of a system gone awry, but the truth is that there are hundreds of contributing factors that allow the system to be so corrupt and yet still function with an air of propriety. It does seem to be a screw and get screwed kind of business, doesn’t it.