Page 2 of 2

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 5:24 am
by Adoom
They're all scumbags.

Put my pop through the ringer when he had a vehicle he paid €70,000 for stolen after their house was broken into. Think he got about a 1/3rd of it back.

As far as healthcare systems go, I had to pay a few grand out to have wisdom teeth removed, after waiting 2 fucking years in occasional agony. They didn't tell me it would cost me that much until about a month ago? I could have very easily gone private, years ago for that money.

If someone billed me for an ambulance ride, I'd return the thing after dropping it in a septic tank. Fucking assholes. Every insurance company is fucking terrible, and anybody who works for one should just surrender all claim to humanity.

Fucking. Scumbags.

snipelfritz wrote:My Impromptu Essay on Insurance Companies

Preface: I don't believe in evil. I don't believe there is one sinister corporate/religious/fascist/power-hungry/Illuminati-esque group controlling things and deliberately establishing massive institutions and social systems for purely insidious purposes. The world is just far too large and complex for that to happen.

Counter-preface: These sorts of insidious institutions may exist, but only from isolated origin and time rather than deliberate design.

Thesis: There is no devil, but Insurance Companies are about as damn close as you can get. I highlighted dev's statement because that's what it comes down to: their business model. Look at it logically...

A company is driven to make the largest net profit possible
To make a net profit, a company must make a profit.
To make a profit, the company must have a source of income.
To receive income, the company must provide some sort of good/service (what we'll call "product") in return.
To provide a product, the company must make expenditures.
To make a net profit, the profit must be greater than the expenditures
The greater your income is than your expenditures, the larger your net profit

Basic economics, right? (rhetorical question #1, also note: I've never take an economics course in my life) Well what happens when the product is something that the company may choose to or choose not to provide to the already paying customer? The company will opt not to provide whenever possible in order to avoid expenditures.

So to make a couple leaps in logic, the best insurance company will be the one who can attract the most customers, but provide the least product. Also noting: attracting customers is hella expensive (advertising, etc.), so when performed effectively, the more a company invests in attracting customers they will be motivated to provide less service despite increasing income.

A couple more leaps later we reach our conclusion: The insurance company business model, while undeniably helpful to its customers in many instances, has been established, over time, in a way that strays from providing greater customer service towards simply capturing the greatest market share.

Note: This only is a discussion the business side of insurance companies. The actual realities of risk-averse nature and benefits of having insurance are not being taken into consideration. My editorial note would have to be that I wish we had a better business model for providing a similar service.

I will be expecting my Nobel Prize in the mail, thank you.


Makes sense.

Their employees, without exception, should be burned to death in one massively coincidental series of office fires worldwide, and their families screwed on the life insurance.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 9:35 am
by smallsnd/bigsnd
you guys have health care?

:cry:

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 10:43 am
by theavondon
smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:you guys have health care?

:cry:

Dude, moms rule.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 10:54 am
by Adoom
smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:you guys have health care?

:cry:


I thought so. But you gotta pay for that too. And when I had insurance, it was pretty lame also. Had an incident occur, wasn't helped for a whole day and had to run to have a nurse in A & E stitch me up, whilst paying extortionate fees to have doctors tell me "no, I couldn't touch that, you'd need a surgeon for that."

Then they invoiced me for the trouble.

Nonsense.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Fri Jun 01, 2012 7:56 pm
by snipelfritz
theavondon wrote:
smallsnd/bigsnd wrote:you guys have health care?

:cry:

Dude, moms rule.

Try moms that work for the state. Although that's not as awesome as it used to be. Fuck you, Scott Walker! You'll get your comeuppance this Tuesday.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:08 pm
by aens_wife
From everything I've read, Walker is going to win on Tuesday. Because he is also the DEVIL.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 1:55 pm
by D.o.S.
Choo wrote:Why do you say that? Do you know that insurance companies help people a lot in securing and protecting their life, health and properties?

Try to read this one: http://www.quotes-center.com/what-is-insurance/


:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


Also, what's the deal with Scott Walker. Everyone out here (East coast) just assumes he's a dickhead with silly policy decisions.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:08 pm
by aens_wife
Not just silly policies. He is basically dismantling our (formerly great) school system. He just signed the repeal of the Equal Pay Act. He is at war with the unions. Six of his staff members and aides have been indicted for felonies, two convicted. While in the administration in Milwaukee, he helped introduce the charter school system, which was a disaster.

He is a dickhead, but the policy changes are seriously awful.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:10 pm
by D.o.S.
Yucky. How the fuck, in 2012, do you get away with repealing something like the Equal Pay Act and expect to get re-elected?

Pretty much the only thing that we heard about was his battle with the Teacher's Union.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:21 pm
by aen
Most people are idiots, that's how. Sad but true.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 2:51 pm
by snipelfritz
aens_wife wrote:Not just silly policies. He is basically dismantling our (formerly great) school system. He just signed the repeal of the Equal Pay Act. He is at war with the unions. Six of his staff members and aides have been indicted for felonies, two convicted. While in the administration in Milwaukee, he helped introduce the charter school system, which was a disaster.

He is a dickhead, but the policy changes are seriously awful.

I would consider not voting tomorrow if it weren't for his office's attempts to charge protesters (free speech issue) and the Voter ID Act (disenfranchisement). That is clear partisan BS not even a matter of debatable policy.

Yeah, it'll be close. At least there's a chance we can take the senate.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Mon Jun 04, 2012 3:00 pm
by jfrey
I hate my health insurance. It costs me mad money, and I never use it. I'm extremely resilient so I almost never get sick or injured. In the several years I have had it I have used it for one mandatory physical and one entirely superfluous followup.

I hate it so much that it's the law in Massachusetts that you have to have health care. If I didn't have health insurance I'd be in such a better financial situation.

Re: Insurance Companies are the DEVIL

Posted: Tue Jun 19, 2012 3:46 pm
by culturejam
As has been pointed out, homeowners and car insurance can usually be pretty decent services.

But health insurance is usually just a fuck job. Or it can be, in many cases.

My wife had to go to the ER a couple years ago. Insurance covered about 2/3 of the costs, which ended up being pretty steep. I think were on the hook for about $1k, billed from 4 different departments in the ER (which is crazy). I guess that's not too bad, but it's still bullshit because I pay in way more than I use.

Interesting thing happened: two of the departments sent us an invoice for the exact same amount ($325.33 or something like that), but about a month apart. I assumed the second one was a duplicate and trashed it (along with the next three reminders to pay it). They turned it over to a collections agency. The collections guy calls me up and we figure out what happened. He said if I paid right away, there would be no credit ding, and we settled on a payment of $175!

So the lesson is this: don't pay your hospital bill right away. Wait and bargain down with the collection agency (but pay up the first time they call). :yay:

(I'm not a financial advisor, medical expert, or attorney, so follow my suggestions at your own peril!)