Those Thieving Insurance Companies

The Federal Government, and others, keep telling us that the insurance companies are ripping us off, big time!

How do they - the Administration's hordes - keep getting away with this lie?

When I enlisted in the Army, a tough old Master Sergeant explained the Army's life insurance this way:
"You bet the government $3.20 that you are going to die this month. If you do, you win, and your beneficiary gets the $10,000.! If you do not die, you lose and the government keeps your $3.20."

Like most of what the Army told us: to the point, simple, true,

The whole concept of insurance can get under your skin. For decades I paid auto insurance without having an accident. Premium payments, it seems, were wasted money. On the other hand, supposing I had "won"... had an accident, and the insurance company had to pay off. Would that have been better? Supposing I was injured? Supposing someone died in the accident? Really, now... it's better that I "lost" and the month's premium payment was "wasted".

Well, not entirely 'wasted'. Those premiums had bought me peace of mind, knowing I was protected against catastrophic loss. Not a bad buy, actually!

A couple of decades ago, my wife was diagnosed with systemic lupus. Pretty scary at the onset, and I thought she was going to die. But, good medical care brought it into remission, and there were no further complications. We essentially forgot the entire lupus episode ever happened.

Eventually we downsized our business and gave up our company health insurance plan. When we applied for new health insurance, she was flagged with a preexisting condition, and no one wanted to insure her. We were directed to a high risk insurer, who insured her, with monthly premiums increased more than 400% over what we had been paying. Boy, were we angry.

Then, as my late sister used to say, "Up jumped the devil", my wife was diagnosed with lung cancer. The high risk insurer picked up the entire tab, tens of thousands of dollars, and she received the very best care. Thirteen years later, she is still cancer free. She "won" in the old Master Sergeant's perspective, but that high risk insurer "lost", lost really big bucks.

Do insurance companies want to make a profit? Of course. Do they want to maximize their profit? Of course. It would be terribly dishonest to their shareholders if they did not. Are they ripping us off? Not in my personal experience.