The Gambler
for release 12-11-05
Washington D.C.
I've become pretty much immune to pop-up ads on the internet. I close them without looking at them unless a particularly sexy model catches my eye. But recently one without a sexy model caught my attention. It was one of those ads posing as a survey or a poll. It had a photo of George Bush. He was asking the question, "Do you think that unnecessary litigation is running up your health care costs?" This was a typically loaded poll question.
What is behind excessive litigation in our civil system? The deep pockets of insurance companies.
Imagine going under the knife of a plastic surgeon and coming out looking like the Elephant Man. Or suppose an X-ray reveals that the doctor who did your gall bladder operation sewed a #3 hemostat inside you? These would not be small or frivolous matters. You'd bring a malpractice suit against the sawbones who damaged you. And rightly so. First you'd hire a personal injury attorney – typically ubiquitous as squirrels. He would file suit on your behalf.
But when he files suit against your doctor, he's really not suing your doctor, he's suing an insurance company. This is why he took the job on a contingency basis. He knows that if he makes a case, the insurance company has deep pockets and it could be profitable. This profit motive is part of what drives this unfortunate machine.
Financial industries, especially the insurance industry, have more political suck than most of us can imagine. When any industry can use its influence to establish laws which force consumers to buy their product, it scares me.
Imagine if the dairy industry had enough political clout to create legislation which mandated that every time you went to the grocery store, you would have to buy a gallon of milk. Or what if Steve Jobs bought off enough legislators to pass a law that forced every man, woman and child in the country to purchase an iPod?
This is exactly what the insurance industry has done with respect to auto insurance, since the federal government essentially forces people to buy auto insurance.
The new Medicare Prescription Drug Plan is another example of how insurance companies are using their influence on legislation to secure immense profit. This is the true Axis of Evil – insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and government. See if you can understand the wording of the federal government's overview of the how the Medicare Prescription Drug Discount Card will work. They write it so it's difficult to understand on purpose. They don't want you to realize that the insurance companies will be making out like bandits.
In theory, insurance could be a good idea. Sharing risk and liability seems to be socially responsible, but in the end, it's gambling, and the house always wins. Life insurance has always struck me as an absurdity. Buying it is simply gambling on your own death. If you lose, you lose, and if you win, you lose. The insurance companies have the house advantage. Bookies never lose and, make no mistake, insurance is making book. It's simple mathematics. The odds even out and no matter who wins, the bookie gets his vig.
The Poet's Eye never has seen the sense in insurance. I'll take my chances.
You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em,
Know when to walk away and know when to run.
You never count your money when you’re sittin’ at the table.
There’ll be time enough for countin’ when the dealin’s done.
Now ev’ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away and knowing what to keep.
’cause ev’ry hand’s a winner and ev’ry hand’s a loser,
And the best that you can hope for is to die in your sleep.
– Kenny Rogers
