Healthcare terrorists-The NJ auto insurance companies-From 9/11/01 to 9/11/14
The use of the word terrorism has for the last few decades been invariably associated with bomb toting radically minded middle easterners, who if the western media are to be believed, are hell bent on the destruction of everything that stands for western civilization. This obvious oversimplification of an extremely complex geopolitical situation, with an as equally complex history, has been distilled down by the mass driven media into an adolescent understanding that pitches the ‘good’ guys against the ‘bad’ guys, and you can guess who is who from the perspective of the western powers. However, and as I am sure to the great surprise of many honest hardworking Americans, there are amongst us a force of terror so powerful and ill intended, so well disguised in the corporate suit of modern day Wall Street, that if their tactics of terror and intimidation are not stopped they will be the ones more readily to bring the US to its economic knees. I am, off course, referring to the sector of industry referred to as the insurance business. I have written extensively about this rather sinister subset of the financial world, that began in the selling of insurance policies to the ships transporting slaves across the Atlantic. Not a Christian like point from which to commence a business and not one I am sure, the good prophet JC, would have condoned.
Without again delving into the rather ignominious historical start to the practice of profiting from fear, it is important to this essay to make the link between terror and fear, for it is the act of repeated unpredictable acts of terror that generate fear in people, in exactly the same way that the insurance industry creates a sense of fear and unpredictability, which it then mercilessly exploits for the purposes of commercial profit. The insurance industry in DC has developed powerful lobbies, with a large war chest, and in the context of a weak easily corrupted government, they have introduced legislation to serve their business advantages.
NJ is a geographically small state in the north-eastern part of the continental US and has, unfortunately, a widely held reputation as being one of the most corrupt in the union, which some outside observers see as a consequence of the hang over of the mafia. The word on the street is that they never left the state but simply relocated. Either way the state government has sadly been sold to commercial interests, and does not today make any believable representations that it still advocates for the people. One of the largest collections of buyers have been the auto insurance companies, which in NJ are the entities that provide insurance coverage for car accidents. It should be noted at this point that NJ has the highest rates in the country and when this unusually high figure is forensically examined the only conclusion reached is that it suits the bank balances of the various CEOs that administer these businesses. The inflated rates cannot be explained by the incidence of accidents, as when these are compared with other states as a percentage of the state population, it is found that there is no statistically significant difference. The motivation for the highest rates in the country is pure profiteering, which is sanctioned by a state government that was infiltrated by the auto insurance companies about 15 years ago. Simply put the auto insurance companies have bought the state of NJ and have been given carte blanche with regards to the rates they charge.
The first and most obvious casualty of this modern day stick-up is the NJ consumer who has been duped over the years by massive insurance funded propaganda campaigns into thinking the elevated costs are due to the fees that doctors get paid for taking care of patients injured in car accidents. This kind of sweeping statement which makes a great tabloid headline is an absolute falsity and any forensic analysis of the medical costs in the context of the vast premiums collected by the insurance carriers, would without question prove that the majority of the monies are going straight to the company coffers. These entities have employed the services of Madison Avenue PR firms to brainwash the public into thinking the medical profession are the culprits for the markedly elevated costs, with regular campaigns overflowing with baseless allegations of fraud against doctors. It was not too long ago when the American public woke up and realized that the center of commercial fraud was located in the billion dollar skyscrapers that line Wall Street, which also happens to be where the majority of insurance companies have their headquarters.
The most recent and underhanded tactics that the NJ auto insurance carriers have employed in NJ include the following:
They control and fund the state office of the insurance fraud prosecutor, which should be a completely independent body with definitely no financial ties to the insurance companies. This clearly corrupt relationship is replete with conflicts of interest that all work for the advantage of the insurance company. This unhealthy hand in glove situation is contrary to the basic principles of justice and is used indiscriminately to persecute physicians that are running profitable businesses.
The vast sums of money and power that these entities have amassed over the last two decades now enables them to run massive campaigns of terror in which they decorate seemingly every bus and train in NJ with an intimidating advert that equates insurance fraud with prison. The great irony here is that the actual fraud is being committed by the insurance companies and it is their executives, just like the ones from Enron, that should be sent to jail for dishonest business practices.
The creation of a climate of terror amongst the citizens and physicians is in many ways a more toxic and insidious form than that perpetrated by the attackers of 9/11. The solution to this societal injustice is education and then action. Clearly the people of NJ cannot rely on their government and so they must take action into their own hands with demands that the excessive premiums be reduced, and that the auto insurance companies conduct their business with a greater degree of transparency, part of which would the release of all information pertaining to executive compensation packages. An aggressive public awareness campaign is necessary and facts such as the one that the CEO of Geico gets paid $15 million annually need to be disclosed to every member that purchases any product from Geico as should be the case with every other auto insurance company.
