While emergency communications are essential in time of crisis, there is little if any focus on the insurance industry's role and lack of meaningful information available to the insuring public. Crucial information should reach them before too late. It is difficult to think past what you are taught, as each generation becomes more co-dependent, thanks in large part to the industry's rampant advertising, ironically, paid for by policyholders from their insurance premiums. Would you like to count on insurance? You can. Most people think they are financially prepared for a disaster simply because they carry insurance. However, the millions of people who suffer from a disaster each year such as earthquake, hurricane, tornado and flood generally have no idea what they should financially expect, even after asking around. Nearly everyone has been left out of the loop. Disaster survivors lack their basic policyholder rights and vital information in their time of need, when they are most vulnerable. And, adjusters take advantage. Now, that is something to count on.
If there is one thing I am sure of, it's that most insurance consumers have not had access to fundamental insurance claim rights and information, such as how to figure, file and settle insurance claims (considerably different than merely reporting a loss), not to mention insurance company timely obligations, responsibilities, and rules that tell policyholders some of what they should expect. Most people carry insurance...why shouldn't crucial information reach them before too late? It should.
I believe that lack of psychological emotional preparedness for disaster, and dysfunction after the disaster apply more broadly than to insurance. I think it has a great deal to do with attitude and a trend over the the last century or so towards people being less self-sufficient and more reliant on others in many ways. When we give up authority in the name of convenience we accede to being led, and that sometimes leads to a walk down the primrose path. That being said, if you lack the basics it makes it impossible to assume the correct attitude for independent thought.
If insurance companies can put their heads together, team owners use collective bargaining and ballplayers have their players' union, how about the notion of a phantom coalition: "United Public." There are no union dues, ticket prices or premiums to pay and membership is automatically effective in exchange for a willingness to participate. The public has never been united in any such union or pact. In a free-for-all, perhaps all we need is to better recognize our own individual authority and collective impact. Consumers definitely have a separate interest to protect, and only through apathy have they gotten themselves in this situation. They have to break free of the co-dependent slogans, and find their independent voice. However, for that to happen they must be prepared to look beyond the veil and realize they are champions to win that rainy day.
