Seems like with every year that goes buy, there are more and more things you can buy insurance for. Travelling, living, playing, borrowing… hell the city of New York is even hoping someday soon you’ll have to buy insurance just to record video of it.
On the other hand, whenever there comes a time when people look to their insurance companies, which they’ve been paying for years without ever receiving a dime, the companies work hard at finding a way not to pay. You probably saw that scene in Sicko, where it is right there in black and white, Nixon’s advisor explaining how medical insurance and HMO’s will work, make money by providing as little as possible. It has always been a big part of the insurance business, but it seems like now its the only part of the insurance business…. collect money and do everything in your power NEVER to pay out to a client.
So recently we see the appeal in New Orleans, where the judge has ruled against the citizens who have lost their livelihoods; their homes. They were insured in case of the dangers that come with owning a home in New Orleans. However the insurance companies, panicking at the idea that they will actually have to pay out a huge sum of money from the even larger sum of money they’ve collected over the years…. they have fought tooth and nail in order to stop their customers from being allowed to collect the insurance they thought they had.
I heard a few news reports that talked of the difficult position insurance companies are in. They’d risk huge loses by having to pay for the flood damage caused by hurricane katrina. Once again I repeat in slightly different words: they’d risk huge financial loses by actually providing insurance payments to their paying customers. For them its more honorable and necessary to find a loophole… its not their fault bad things happen, they’re only the insurance company, working hard to hang on to their record profits.
During his long career as a public relations professional in the health insurance world, Wendell Potter lived a luxorious life far removed from the realities of uninsured people throughout the country. Until the day he turned up at a free healthcare fair where thousands of people lined up to receive the most basic care which they could otherwise not get. It was at this point that Wendell decided he had had enough and after leaving his job, dedicated his life to telling the world what he had done and how the insurance companies function to keep things just as they are.