Touring the Valley: insurance

Showing posts with label insurance. Show all posts

Recent Thoughts

If you have a life insurance policy, make sure people know about it. Insurance companies don't just automatically pay when you die - someone has to file a claim. Otherwise, the company keeps your money. Give a copy of the policy to your executor or the beneficiary or someone. Keep another copy in a place your family will look when you're gone (kitchen drawer, file cabinet, jewelry box). If you have a lawyer or accountant, give them a copy to keep in your file.

So-called Non-lethal" weapons are NOT non-lethal. They are considered "less lethal". They can cause serious injuries and permanent disability as well as death.

For example, "rubber" bullets aren't what the name sounds like. They are not just bullets made from rubber. They are METAL with a thin rubber coating.

Tear gas can cause life-threatening conditions such as respiratory failure, chemical burns to the throat and lungs, asphyxia, and even death, especially when deployed in a confined space. Exposure can lead to permanent eye damage, including corneal scarring, cataracts, glaucoma, and traumatic optic neuropathy, with some individuals experiencing complete and permanent blindness. Injury and death have been caused by blunt force when victims were struck by a tear gas cannister.

Imagine a country whose leader posts fake videos to discredit people he dislikes, and isn't impeached for it.

It's a sci-fi horror movie scenario. A sadistic madman seizes control of a once-great nation. He is aided by stooges who have been promised great power and wealth. To lead the military, he chooses a bloodthirsty drunk with the critical thinking skills of a 3rd grade bully, who is eager to kill people and break things. They plan to "train" the army by attacking cities in their own country. How would a great screenwriter defeat the villains and restore hope and freedom to the people?

Prescription For Success

I'm going to restructure my company, using the same business model as health care companies. When you order my products, I will send you a smaller quantity than you requested. If you complain, I'll just tell you that I've determined that is all you actually need.

Sometimes I'll send nothing. When you complain, I'll tell you that I've determined that this was an unnecessary order.

Sometimes I'll send a different product, with a note saying you must try this first to see if it works out before you can have what you ordered.

Sometimes I'll ship exactly what you ordered, but I'll include a bill for another 25%. When you question the bill, I'll tell you it's a required co-payment.

This will be great.

Your Children's Future Health Care

Imagine that you're in your seventh or eighth month of pregnancy and you go into labor. It's frightening, because you know this is too soon.

You rush to the hospital. Fortunately, you don't live in a neglected rural area where there are no hospitals and you're lucky enough to get there on a day when they aren't overcrowded, at a time when the nurses aren't in the middle of a shift change, on a day that's not a holiday. You get seen right away by the best obstetrical team in the region. Your baby is born very prematurely, weighing less than two pounds. She's alive!

Your tiny child is given the best available treatment, and spends many weeks in the NICU. There are several close calls, but the great doctors and nurses are heroic, and your baby survives, despite being very weak and sick. Finally, she's strong enough to come home. You have a long list of special instructions for her care and feeding. Fortunately, there are no major emergencies. The hospital expenses were huge, but you were fortunate to have a good health plan that covered almost everything.

As time goes by, your daughter still has some health issues, but she keeps getting stronger, and by the time she is ten years old, you would never guess she was a preemie. One day when she's 15, she falls off her bike and breaks her leg. This is a fairly normal problem, so you are shocked when your health plan refuses to pay for her treatment, because she has reached her "lifetime limit". It's not easy, but you manage to pay the bill.

You start looking around for a new health care plan, but you find out that your daughter can't get coverage because she has "pre-existing conditions."

"Wait a minute," you say, "I thought pre-existing conditions don't matter because of the Affordable Care Act."

The insurance agent replies, "Don't you remember? The ACA was repealed by the Republican majority in Congress back in 2025, after the Supreme Court installed trump as President For Life. We can now exclude anyone who's ever been sick. In fact, we are about to declare that being female is a pre-existing condition. Your daughter will never have health care coverage. Even if she somehow lives to be 75 - the new retirement age - she won't be eligible for Medicare, since it was privatized and operates under our rules. Sorry." He's not sorry.