Unlike the housing market, insurance company issues are likely to be intangible--only experience shows pitfalls. Even with the high visibility of the housing market, we created a housing mess through a variety of "free market economy decisions" that ended up in the new demands for government intervention and bailout. Government bailout is the quick fix consumers, businesses and citizens seek when we cry FOUL, something's gone really wrong--all the Adam Smith blah blah blahs go running to the government and talk about how good things would have been if only everyone had behaved ethically, if everyone had let their greed dictate their conduct within the confines of good sense and responsibility, blah blah blah. Then of course there are the deniers--those who say WHAT PROBLEM? And, after the bailout, after a countless number of new governmental regulations, policies and expenses because of the necessary fixing of a mess, we're back to touting "THE FREE MARKET ECONOMY."
How 'bout with insurance? With all the talk of PRIVATIZING insurance, with all the new plans and scare tactics that have citizens scrambling to get some kind of coverage, we're missing the impending INSURANCE meltdown. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what's going on if we look. Higher premiums, less coverage, every guy and his mother selling insurance and every product under the sun from temporary policies to prescription policies to high deductible policies, from PPOs to POs to HMOs to long term care insurance that is now the new "must-have" insurance. Time out. As baby boomers come of age, the insurance industry is tackling the problem--we don't want to pay out for that aging population. While baby boomers avoid the reality--we're old--and flock to wellness programs, continuing retirement communities that will move us from independence to dependence to death in secure style--we are not using the boomer numbers to demand that the government take care of its citizens--but we will.
The point is that the time to advocate is before the meltdown, but just like with housing, individuals have self-congratulated themselves that they got their piece--a great insurance policy, long term care to die for, supplemental insurance and maybe they're even the same ones who made a killing in the corruption and irresponsibility of the housing "boom" that led to the housing "meltdown." What are we doing? We're carrying a perverted sense of the free market economy to a corrupt and exploitive end. It's unpatriotic and unAmerican to expect the government to support its citizens, whether from the unethical business practices of the housing meltdown or from the unethical business practices that will lead to the insurance meltdown. This idiotic philosophy of can do and every man for himself ignores the fact that when the going gets tough all the can do phonies go running to the government for a bailout and try to avoid responsibility for their corruption and exploitation. With health insurance, it will likely take a little longer for the meltdown to become real enough to enough people for someone to actually do something about it, why? Because those exploited, bankrupted and duped into the insurance world will likely be dead before they can call their congress people, or finish their lawsuits.
With all the insurance choices, what happens if your insurance company is no longer in business when your perfect long term care policy is needed? What about that great price you got from your insurance agent, what do you do next? Go to the government. Read about your own state's guaranty insurance. What's that, you ask? That is the GOVERNMENTAL insurance company (in each state) that protects you when your insurer goes bankrupt. Insurance for insurance companies--your claims will get paid up to a certain dollar amount if your insurance company goes bankrupt. But the coverage is only up to a certain dollar amount. The bailout, like all bailouts will leave people falling through the cracks. (Why is it un-American to partner with the government before we lose those citizens who will fall through the cracks? We should not adhere to some notion of anarchy that resists governmental involvement until the proverbial sh.. hits the fan. ) Before claims start pouring into state guaranty insurance, however, it is often the case that insurance companies facing bankruptcy because of excessive claims, corruption or mismanagement, are likely to be bought by another insurance company. Sound familiar?
By using a knee-jerk misunderstood concept that it is unAmerican to have our government involved in the management, oversight, and provision of accessible, affordable, quality health care for all our citizens we are deluding ourselves to the point of meltdown. After the Meltdown I have no doubt we will do what we always do, look to the government to step in and help "fix" the mess.
