You Don't Say!

On the television show, The $25,000 Pyramid (et al) it was never about what you said but what you implied. In that show and others of its kind like 'Password' you made money by figuring out what was meant by using logic to determine what was left out.

Unfortunately the only ones to have learned a lesson from those shows seem to be the insurance companies. And they are playing the game to perfection.

Many years ago my home owners insurance cost under $300 per year and I was covered for nearly everything one could think of with the possible exception of elephant stampedes. But in the 20 years that I was complacent about shopping around my insurance company slowly but surely increased their coffers at my expense.

The policy continued to look the same and the wording was just as hard to read or follow without a PhD in obfuscation but tiny additions or riders kept cropping up. For example my home was always covered for damage caused by events other than my negligence. But a few years ago I received a note about flood damage. Suddenly there was a new worry and a new rider I had to purchase if I wanted to cover that possibility.

Other such riders include Hurricane damage and were quantified by category of storm. In other words if a storm was too weak to be worried about I was covered but if it was a 'cat 3' or higher I had to purchase another rider for coverage. Simply put I was now only covered in the event of a fart damaging my home. Anythiong stronger than a fart would be at my expense.

Without checks and balances I believe that in another 10 years my home will only be covered for those elephant stampedes of which I spoke earlier. And then only if they happen during a solar eclipse.

Insurance companies are not the only once complicit in the scheme to defraud their customers. Think back to that ground coffee you used to get at a supermarket. There was 16 ounces in a can of a certain size. The can stayed the same size but only those few observant consumers may have noticed that the contents of the can was getting lower. In fact the last time I bought a can of coffee at a supermarket the normal can I had grown up seeing on the shelf held only 10 ounces. But the price never dropped.

Guardian Health, one of the 'who gives a shit' insurance companies out there (and my current one unfortunately) was caught dropping an entire group of disabled individuals because as one of their soon to be fired employees wrote in a company email, "...These dogs are costing us too much to cover..." (sic)

So Guardian realized that dropping 1 person who cost them too much was illegal but dropping everyone like him could give them safety in numbers. Naturally they reversed their stance WHEN CAUGHT!

My auto insurance costs just went up. No I did not place a claim. And actually according to the guy who took my complaint call I was wrong - My rates did not go up. What happened was they discontinued a discount I was receiving. My reply was simply, "But yesterday I was paying $X and today I am paying $X plus X. On what planet do you not see my out of pocket expense being more now than before?" I don't care if there is less coffee in the can as long as you charge me less for the product NOT MORE!

There is a major disconnect in this country. Too many people say they want Government out of their lives. But they also want less expensive health care and affordable insurance.

But Government is currently out of the lives of the big insurance companies and do not regulate them. The industry has no restrictions and can gouge us until the cows come home - and then leave and come back and on and on.

If we are to survive and thrive with a little spending money left when we retire we then the PASSWORD is listen! Listen to what's being said AND what is not. Don't forget other TV shows such as "You Bet Your Life" and "You Asked For It." And remember, the $25,000 PYRAMID was JUST a game but this is real life!

Water Works

Not long ago our homeowners insurance was canceled.

Perhaps we made a costly claim?
Not according to the insurance company who actually said the claim we made was small considering the cause.

Then the cause must have been frivolous?
Not unless you call having your home struck by lightning frivolous.

Then perhaps lightning struck the house too often during our 25 years of residence?
That was not the case since this was our first and only claim and it was made it in 1987.

So why, you may ask was the dastardly act being perpetrated on us?

Our insurance was being canceled because we live on Long Island and the insurance people claim that we are due for the ‘big one,’ as in a category 3 hurricane or worse.

Does this cowardly behavior on the part of our former insurance company worry anyone else? It should because it could signal the opening of the flood gates as other entities raise their rates based not on facts but rather probabilities and statistics.

For example, hasn’t it been 65 million years since that asteroid killed the dinosaurs? Wow, we must be living on borrowed time. Uh-oh, there go my life insurance rates!

But speaking of flood gates one of the main reasons the insurance companies are canceling policies is they fear more flood damage up and down the Eastern seaboard. They have even drawn up new maps defining areas they feel are more likely to cause a drop in their profits and have raised the premiums accordingly assuming they have not dropped them entirely.

You see they do not wish to be a part of the incumbent claims that would follow any possible catastrophic event. In other words they will only insure against the impossible. One must wonder why such risk averse companies chose to be in the insurance game in the first place.

But their fears should be examined. In light of the newsworthy floods flooding the airways this year perhaps we the people should also be thinking about flood damage here on the Island and what if anything we can do to minimize the effect.

These fearsome floods would most likely be caused by stronger than normal hurricanes and not necessarily the proverbial ‘big one’ although if it’s coming it is four seasons closer than last year. And with the debate continuing over global warming, or global climate change depending on your politics we may see more and more such storms in our future.

Many years ago I saw the Mississippi River flood, something it unfortunately does all too often. While watching the devastation this caused I had a simple thought. Why not build a nationwide system of interconnected water mains to effectively evacuate flood waters to areas less in danger or actually in need of the precious liquid. While one part of our country is experiencing a flood invariably another part is dealing with a dangerous drought or worse, brush and wild fires.

A project of this magnitude would take many years and put thousands of people to work all across America. If done properly this system could even have the extra added benefit of producing some power from the flow of water during flood caused exchanges. And one more side effect to consider; these jobs could not be outsourced to, say India.

Admittedly this would not be an easy undertaking. First rational people would have to convince the Republicans and Conservatives of the country that it was not a plot to kill grandma or something equally as stupid. Then it would require top minds working out many details beforehand but since when has that stopped Americans? We built a nationwide system of highways, rails and a power grid that allows utilities to find extra wattage when necessary. Why not start the same system for water?

The President is touting plans to shore up our infrastructure and looking for ways to jumpstart the economy. We on the shores of the Atlantic agree with him. I for one would like to see more action before the rest of the insurance companies turn tail and follow our old one out of town.