Posted On: August 16, 2006, 8:43 am CDT

Posted By: of interest

I may have misunderstood the whole insurance idea (as an insurance company you take a group of insurers with differing risk levels and lump them together thereby limiting the overall risk; as the consumer you have a risk that you can not afford to cover in a lump sum so you buy insurance from a compnay who has lumped you into a group of other consumers to spread the risk).
In the state of Miss the insurance commissioner Mr. George Dale(who has been in office for about 30 years, and who accepted more than $750k in campaigne contributions from the insurance companies, who he is suppose to be regulating) just recently allowed the insurance to be raised 268% on commercial business on the Miss coast (because he says the companies will pull out if he is too hard on them). In his 30 years in office as insurance commissioner did Mr. Dale ever think that if basic concept of spreading risk is not accomplished that there would have to be a 268% increase. Why with probably over 60% of the U.S. population living in a coastal state, has Mr. Dale not thought of making an allience with the other coastal states that says if you want to write in one state you must write in all the states and then Mr. Dale may not feel so threatened his campaigne contributors. There seems to be several basic problems. Mr. Dale said at the Neshoba County Fair " the insurance companies think I am in the pocket of the consumer, and the consumer thinks I am in the pocket of the insurance companies". First I guess someone must remind Mr. Dale that he is an elected official there to serve the people, not the companies who gave him $750k. Who decided to let the insurance companies define risk. If I recall there was a pretty good flood in Jackson Miss on Easter of 1979, there was a pretty good little tornado in Madison Miss just 4 years ago, (not to just confine diasters to Miss) I recall the Mississippi River getting out of it's bank yearly and causing massive flooding, I could go on and on. Business is Business, the insurance companies will continue to write insurance for as much as they possibley can (showing the risk to be as high as they can when pricing it, with smaller risk pools, but they will continue to write insurance in as broad an area as they can so as to limit their overall risk) that is the name of the game, make as much money as possible. And the insurance companies have done this very well, look at their profits from last year. This will continue until the public stands up and ask their elected officials to control the situation. (The last problem) Once the officails are getting the insurance industries lobbying money and kick backs they are hooked, and it is to late! It is to late!!!!