InsNotes! Now with Video!
InsFans,
If you want to know what I’ve been talking about with these Notes!(TM), give a listen to the first 3:21 of this recent press conference by Rep. Gene Taylor, D-Miss.
Sure, he looks like Robert Redford. Sure, he’s got a cool accent. Sure, he compared the insurance industry to “child molesters,” though not here. Ok, so maybe that wasn’t the most temperate remark.
But I found it very compelling. He seems nervous, but I think he’s just frustated and angry. And, yes, I will give equal time to the insurance folks.
Since it’s a little tricky to cut, paste and play, I’m going to provide a two graf transcript. I was going to include my hilarious phonetic recreation of his ack-sunt, but people would think ah wuz mockin’ the gah. If you think that, you do not understand this blog, so get out. But eventually, I’d like Gulf-area policyholders to be reading this, and I’m afraid they wouldn’t get it. Too bad. Because it was hilarious. (Ok, a small sample: “tote refoam.” I SLAY myself!) He’s talking about his proposal to revoke the insurance industry’s anti-trust exemption. (Say what? See archives to catch up.)
“No one should be above the law. And I’ve got to tell you, I voted for almost every tort refom issue that ever came before Congress, and before that almost every tort reform measure that came before the Mississippi legislature. But this storm, and the way the insurance industry has treated the people of Southern Mississippi, has really caused me to look them in an entrely different light (Ok, can’t resist: “diffrunt laight”).
….Look at your own pay stub – and I guarantee you, if you’re one these young guys or one of these old guys working for me – when you look at your paystub, one of the top four expenditures in your life is insurance. And yet there’s no real competition in the people that sell you that service. And it’s perfectly legal for them to call each other up and say, let’s charge this much. It’s perfectly legal for them to say, ‘let’s provide this kind of coverage.”
And unfortunately, in the case of Katrina, it was perfectly legal apparently for several of them to call each other up and say, ‘I’m not going to pay claims. You don’t pay claims.’ “
I’ll have more to say about the explosive allegation in the last graf, but I don’t think he was speaking hypothetically.
Ok, a hearty Notes! welcome to New York BizNews Duomos, The N.O. Spanish Scholar, the NY PR Mogul, and importantly, the two Bayou Insurance Bengals. This is the only day you’ll receive two (brutal insurance overload).
click raht heah ta see video (sorry Southern brothers and sisters, that’s mah las’ wun, oops, I mean, last one.) Click here to see video, then click “click to start Real Playa” (honk) and then “launch this application.”
http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=Katrina%20Task%20Force%20Releases%20Katrina%20Report&link=rtsp%3A%2F%2Fvideo.c%2Dspan.org%2Fproject%2Fhur%2Fhur101906%5Fdems.rm
November 5th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
I was just curious if you’ve seen anything along the lines of these two news articles:
17,000 pages of State Farm documents revealed.
My sister had her claim “rewritten” but State Farm came back and paid what was due her. She had no flood damage. It was strictly wind.
This is about State farm practices after the Oklahoma tornado.
I’ve written several posts about the insurance companies in Mississippi. I’m just surprised that there doesn’t seem to be too much outrage at what is going on and that it’s not being written about.
PS: You need to work on the accent a little more. I picture Liz Taylor doing Beau Rivage commercials when I see your Southern translation!! Work a little harder!
November 5th, 2006 at 7:07 pm
Hi Seawitch and welcome,
Thanks for the stuff. I’ve posted about the Rigsby sisters before. It’s the second item under “Notes! Beginnings.” I was just trying this out at that point. I love your point about Oklahoma and will be writing on that, too.
Ahm wookin’ on mah ack-sunt, but ah thank ah got a ways ta go, if y’all see what am sayin’. Still, ah thankee, ma’am.