This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.
In an August 17 commentary, financial expert and investor safety advocate Martin Weiss explained his own confrontations with insurers, starting in 1989 when he began rating them honestly.
At the time, large insurers like Executive Life, Fidelity Bankers Life, First Capital Life, and others were over-invested with risky junk bonds. He rated First Capital Life a D- and felt he was generous. Days later, company lawyers and officials threatened to sue and "put me out of business....if I didn't give them a better rating."
"Who the hell do you think you are," they asked. "All the established ratings agencies give us high grades." Weiss refused and cited the company's own financial statement for proof. An "ultimate threat" followed:
"Weiss better shut the f... up or get a bodyguard," one official said.
Instead, he "intensified" his warnings, and "within weeks, the company went belly up, still boasting high ratings from established agencies on the very day it failed. In fact, AM Best, the nation's leading insurance rating agency, didn't downgrade (the company) to a warning level until five days" after it went out of business along with two of its closest competitors, leaving their investors and policy holders high and dry.
The moral to this horror story is simple. If investing in these companies was foolhardy, why would anyone buy their health insurance and entrust them with their lives!! Why should anyone HAVE to buy private insurance that sacrifices human health for profits at extortionist premiums!! Why should drug prices be sky high!! When will the public demand better from the bipartisan criminal class in Washington, and get activist enough for change!!
Weiss calls insurers "denial machines" that spend substantial sums as follows:
-- for computer programs and systems that deny and/or delay claims payments;
Next Page 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
1
