CARLTON FLETCHER: We’re getting screwed … bum-ba-dum-dum bum-bum-bum

“Honesty is hardly ever heard And mostly what I need from you.”

— Billy Joel

I ask forgiveness in advance if I step on the toes of friends, acquaintances and some of the good guys who are insurance agents. But while we — and the government do-nothings we elected to represent us — are sitting around worried about silly partisan political issues, insurance companies are driving an increasing number of people toward bankruptcy with virtually no oversight.

With the insurance lobby stuffing our senators’ and representatives’ pockets, Congress — and state officials as well — continue to give insurance companies the right to rip consumers off with not a hint of reprisal. Those same elected officials also pass laws requiring the public to have insurance to get a driver’s license, to buy a house, hell, to even get medical treatment at a growing number of health care facilities.

If it weren’t so sad, it would be comical how officials elected to regulate the actions of insurance companies end up regulating for the insurance companies, ignoring citizens’ legitimate claims that insurance companies simply refuse to pay. If, God forbid, an insurance company has to actually pay a claim, it will either a) raise the premium costs on the ingrate who had the audacity to ask the company to do what it said it would do or b) drop that person altogether. Without a warning.

I’ve heard horror stories from throughout the community (I have my own, but I’ll save it for another day):

♦ A family that had faithfully paid premiums for 25 years was summarily dropped by its insurance company when the family made a small-ish claim for storm damage on their home;

♦ A man and his wife were left with a mountain of debt when their insurance company refused to pay a health care claim because of a fine-print technicality … and the insurance commissioner’s office offered no relief.

♦ People who lost their home and all their possessions were forced to lower their standard of living considerably when their insurance company paid only a percentage of the value of their home and its belongings when it was destroyed by fire.

♦ People who were flooded out of their homes — forced to leave in a hurry when waters advanced more quickly than they’d been told — lost all their possessions and received no payment from the insurance company because they weren’t told that they had to have separate flood insurance in order to collect from the insurance company they’d paid for decades.

Insurance companies rake in premiums by the billions, ensuring (ironic phrase) trusting consumers that they’ll be by their side in times of trouble. If a premium payment is late, God forbid, they’ll let those consumers know right quick and in a hurry that if they can’t be trusted to pay what they owe, they’ll be dropped, left to navigate the waters of seas legislated to be ruled over by the insurance industry. But when it comes time for the consumer to make a claim, it often takes a court order for payment to be made, if one ever is.

Yes, they tell us through their cute spokes ducks and geckos and cave men and whales and all the smooth-talking celebrities who assure us that these companies are our friends, that they’ll stand by us through thick and thin. But those good hands they they reach out with to take our money come back empty when we ask them to pay a claim that we’re entitled to receive.

There needs to be much more oversight of this industry; there needs to be an overhaul of legislation that governs this unscrupulous industry, whose supposed reason for existence is to stand as a hedge to protect our values and our health against unforeseen calamity.

But, as those of us who’ve been caught up in the insurance hustle clearly understand: “We’re getting screwed … bum-ba-dum-dum bum-bum-bum.”