Tis the season for paying insurance premiums
Call it cruel coincidence, or perhaps corporate conspiracy, but both my car and health insurance premiums are due early this month.
Insurance is a sad, but apparently necessary, evil of adulthood, especially in America’s budding corporate oligarchy; at every turn, companies find new ways to mandate or coerce us into writing them checks. Though the benefits are not used every day, the protection and security come in handy when needed. But, for the most part, insurance companies rake in our cash for doing nothing.
Basically, the deal goes a little something like this: “You give us money and if something happens we will help out. In the meantime, we will spent shitloads of money on advertising/bloated executive salaries/snazzy head offices.” Most of the time nothing happens. Sometimes, when something does happen, insurance companies weasel themselves out of being there and doing what you pay them to do.
In one way it seems like a deal (it’s there when you need it). In a lot of other ways, though, insurance seems like a huge crock of shit that benefits everyone but the policyholder. But, as I said, it is a necessary (often mandated) evil.
One of the many perks of leaving California and returning to the Hawkeye State is drastically lower car insurance premiums. My first official act of transition, after changing my address, was to cancel my California-based policy and get an Iowa one. The result: my car insurance is now 26 percent of what it was in SoCal. Having paid outrageous west coast prices, I will gladly fork over a measly $320 for six months of state-required coverage. However, what the hell is that money doing? Frankly, I think it pays for the Gator Bowl sponsorship (way to show up, Michigan) and those annoying commercials with Flo.
What my $1,520 six-month health care premium pays for is another mystery. As far as I can tell, private health insurance policies are an agonizing balancing act. Every visit to the doctor not only makes my insurance company fretful over the risk it takes insuring me, it makes me fret over the possibility of increased premiums. The result: I have not been to the doctor since I started paying for my health care.
However, my premium will increase anyway. Wellmark, which basically has a monopoly on health insurance in Iowa, will be increasing premiums 11 percent this year to, according to the DMR, “keep up with fast-rising medical costs.” (Company officials did not even attend a public hearing on December 18, where customers vented frustration at the second double-digit hike in a year.) Meanwhile, Wellmark just put the finishing touches on a $250 million corporate headquarter in Des Moines, which the company says has no connection to its price increases. Despite the assurances, you cannot help thinking $250 million is money better spent covering “fast-rising medical costs,” just as advertising dollars could be diverted to providing better auto coverage. (In 2009, Progressive spent $517 million on advertising, almost as much as Nike.)
Happy holidays, Wellmark and Progressive. Thanks for…?
Insurance is a sad, but apparently necessary, evil of adulthood, especially in America’s budding corporate oligarchy; at every turn, companies find new ways to mandate or coerce us into writing them checks. Though the benefits are not used every day, the protection and security come in handy when needed. But, for the most part, insurance companies rake in our cash for doing nothing.
Basically, the deal goes a little something like this: “You give us money and if something happens we will help out. In the meantime, we will spent shitloads of money on advertising/bloated executive salaries/snazzy head offices.” Most of the time nothing happens. Sometimes, when something does happen, insurance companies weasel themselves out of being there and doing what you pay them to do.
In one way it seems like a deal (it’s there when you need it). In a lot of other ways, though, insurance seems like a huge crock of shit that benefits everyone but the policyholder. But, as I said, it is a necessary (often mandated) evil.
One of the many perks of leaving California and returning to the Hawkeye State is drastically lower car insurance premiums. My first official act of transition, after changing my address, was to cancel my California-based policy and get an Iowa one. The result: my car insurance is now 26 percent of what it was in SoCal. Having paid outrageous west coast prices, I will gladly fork over a measly $320 for six months of state-required coverage. However, what the hell is that money doing? Frankly, I think it pays for the Gator Bowl sponsorship (way to show up, Michigan) and those annoying commercials with Flo.
What my $1,520 six-month health care premium pays for is another mystery. As far as I can tell, private health insurance policies are an agonizing balancing act. Every visit to the doctor not only makes my insurance company fretful over the risk it takes insuring me, it makes me fret over the possibility of increased premiums. The result: I have not been to the doctor since I started paying for my health care.
However, my premium will increase anyway. Wellmark, which basically has a monopoly on health insurance in Iowa, will be increasing premiums 11 percent this year to, according to the DMR, “keep up with fast-rising medical costs.” (Company officials did not even attend a public hearing on December 18, where customers vented frustration at the second double-digit hike in a year.) Meanwhile, Wellmark just put the finishing touches on a $250 million corporate headquarter in Des Moines, which the company says has no connection to its price increases. Despite the assurances, you cannot help thinking $250 million is money better spent covering “fast-rising medical costs,” just as advertising dollars could be diverted to providing better auto coverage. (In 2009, Progressive spent $517 million on advertising, almost as much as Nike.)
Happy holidays, Wellmark and Progressive. Thanks for…?
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