Things That Just Piss Me Off

Now this really pisses me off. Insurance companies have been bilki9ng the public for a long time now. They take our money, then they invest it in the stock market, real estate, or whatever else they think will improve their bottom line for their investors.

Then whenever a big disaster hits, like 9-11 for instance, katrina, etc., they cry to the government to bail them out.

They buy up insurance policies on buildings in japan knowing full well there could be a big earthquake there at any time and knowing they would not be able to cover it if it did happen. But fortunately for them they also know they can run to our government to be bailed out.

They threaten that if the insurance companies went belly up it would hurt the stock market and the economy so the government has to bail them out.

So we pay the premiums, then when a disaster hits, they get our tax money to pay for it while they use the premiums for investments and profit. We get it going and coming. Now they want us to pay again.

Insurers Shift Cost Burdens to Homeowners
By JOSEPH B. TREASTER of the NYTimes

American homeowners are having to make do with much less coverage at steadily rising prices. In Miami and other places along the coast, insurance prices have skyrocketed, deepening the national slowdown in home sales.

The cutbacks in coverage, consumer advocates say, have contributed to the slow recovery of the Gulf Coast from Hurricane Katrina and will most likely hamper recovery from the recent wildfires in California.

“You have a different mentality at the insurance companies,” said Andrew Barile, a consultant who has spent his life in the industry. “They no longer worry about the public service aspect. They’re concentrating on the bottom line.”

The bottom line has been good recently. The property insurance industry, including home, auto and commercial coverages, reported a record profit of $44 billion in 2005, even after paying $41 billion in damages from Katrina. The industry set another record for profit in 2006 at $64 billion. And as a second hurricane season is coming to an end without a hurricane hitting the coasts, 2007 is shaping up to be another lucrative year.

Ten years ago, for example, the average cost of home insurance in America was $455 a year.

Today, it is an estimated $886 for much less insurance. Along the coastlines, annual premiums on houses routinely run into the thousands of dollars. Contending that even those premiums are not high enough for the risk they face, the insurers have canceled or declined to renew several million policies.

Two years ago, the annual cost of coverage for Mr. Williams, a retired airline pilot, and his wife, a former flight attendant, rose more than 50 percent to $2,599, for about $250,000 in coverage.

The Bush administration is not helping either. Bush is so pro-big-business that all corporations have been pushing the limits as to what they can get away with because they know they have an ally in the white house.

The FCC is letting media companies buy out smaller newspapers, radio stations and tv stations, relaxing the rules put into place to assure diversity in the news we listen to, watch or read.

The EPA is virtually nonexistant as far as controlling pollution.

The FDA will approve anything the pharmeceutical companies tell them to and they got Bush to support a drug plan for seniors and prohibeted the government from being able to negotiate for better drug prices on their behalf.

The SEC isn’t doing anything to curb investment fraud even though they made it appear that something would happen after enron, worldcom, tyco, and others ripped everyone off. Pretty much putting martha stewart in jail is supposed to prove they are tough on corporate crime.

Try taking a grievance against an employer to the US Dept. of Labor or your state’s dept. of labor. Nothing will happen to an employer who doesn’t pay you or doesn’t provide the benefits they promised.

The Consumer protection Agency can’t even stop wal-mart, mattel, and other big companies from selling toys to our kids that contain lead.

And it’s obvious that the Insurance Commissioners are doing nothing at all to protect consumers.

The reason all of these government agencies that are supposed to protect us are not doing so?

Politicians posture and try to look good while creating these agencies for our protection, then when they write the budget, corporate lobbyists make sure the agencies do not get enough funding to do their jobs. Thats te game that allows the politicians to look good while the corporate lobbyists make sure nothing will happen to their clients from these agencies.

Sure talk about the EPA all you want senator, just make sure you don’t give them the money to actually investigate or spot check any violators.

Sure, have an insurance commissioner, but make sure you choose someone friendly to the industry who won’t make any waves.

And of course anyone chosen to head the SEC should be friendly to brokerages and who has a good relationship with a lot of the top CEOs so we can make sure that our books don’t get looked at too carefully.

Even George Bush violated SEC rules when he ran a corporation where his daddy got him a job and of course absolutely nothing happened to him then either.