Here’s a letter my husband mailed at the beginning of December to all US senators and many congressman, particularly those from the Gulf Coast states. He has yet to receive one response. Why is it that no one will stand up to the insurance companies? We are one of a very lucky few (I’m sure) who appear to have won our battle with our insurance company — the engineer’s report came back in our favor. But the hell we had to go through to get to this place should not be required when you’re already dealing with a tragedy. And how many of you, who maybe didn’t know how to fight the system or didn’t have a big enough mouth to be heard or just didn’t know you had other options settled for less than you deserved? “Like a good neighbor,” “You’re in good hands,” “On your side,” I think not. Anyway, here’s the letter. Feel free to borrow from it or copy the whole darn thing and email it to your elected representatives! http://www.house.gov/writerep/ and http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm.
December 1, 2005: I am writing to request that members of the US Congress and Senate please do something to make insurance companies get payments to their policyholders in a more timely manner. All over the South, hundreds of thousands of your citizens are living in unclean, unsafe and poverty-like conditions or worse because every day that insurers can delay paying our claims they are putting money in the bank. There was a recent article written by Katie Fairbank and Jennifer LaFleur published in the Dallas Morning News where Douglas Heller, Executive Director of the National Flood Insurance Program, was quoted as saying, “Delays actually make money for the insurance industry. “A month-long delay in claims for 50 destroyed homes could bring in more than $30,000 in investment income to the underwriter,” he said. Also, the “longer the delay, the more likely homeowners will settle for less.”
I recently attended a town-hall meeting hosted by MS Representative Gene Taylor. One of the questions asked of Rep. Taylor was, “Who regulates the insurance industry?” His response was that the insurance industry was one of two industries he knew of over which the government had no regulation. The other is Major League Baseball. And while I’m not a baseball fan and I will openly admit I don’t understand the motivation behind the amount of time you’ve been spending this past year regarding steroids in baseball, what the insurance companies are permitted to do to your constituents has such devastating consequences that impact hundreds of thousands of people more than the effects of steroids in baseball. I’m having a really hard time understanding why the underhanded, almost mafia-like practices of insurance companies are being ignored by our government.
I realize insurance is a for-profit industry, but it should not be allowed to take advantage of people experiencing some of the most trying times of their lives. And while some states obviously have invested the time and effort in trying to ensure equality on both sides of the equation, there can be no doubt that this is not the case throughout this country. I know of no one who will admit the system works, yet no one wants to address it and fix it in order to bring equality to ALL sides of the equation.
We purchase insurance primarily for peace of mind. We pay astronomical fees each year for this peace of mind. Yet, when tragedy occurs, insurance companies are permitted to delay settlements, arbitrarily assign coverages and decide amounts and deceive their policyholders in general, allowing some to be brought to the brink of bankruptcy and forcing them to accept less than what they paid for. Their actions are unregulated to boot!
There are many Americans who desperately needed and still need the Federal Government’s help following Katrina and Rita, such as those with no flood or homeowner’s insurance that lost everything they own. But there is another group of Americans that is being pushed towards poverty for no reason. We have insurance policies and would not be in need of government assistance if only someone would step up to the plate and put an end to allowing the insurance industry to do this to their policyholders.
While it’s a wonderful thing for our children to look up to sports figures as national heroes, it would certainly be a better thing if our politicians would go to bat to allow our children the right to live in clean, safe homes by putting a stop to the strong-armed tactics of the insurance industry. Thank you for your consideration.
- David
