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Federal Insurance Programs

by Bob Betzen

homeowners_insurance_3.jpg
Our federal government provides insurance through a number of programs. The federal flood insurance program protects homeowners from water damage. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation steps in to reimburse account holders when banks go belly up. Federal Crop Insurance protects farmers from catastrophic crop loss. Everywhere you look, the government is in the insurance game. But none of these organizations are designed to turn a profit.

Privately owned insurance companies on the other hand, have enjoyed record profits recently. You certainly wouldn’t know it from listening to insurance company propaganda. They’re busy trying to convince the public that trial lawyers are destroying the world as we know it. Of course the legions of trial lawyers hired by insurance companies are conveniently never mentioned. So consumers have to reimburse their own lawyers in order to obtain reasonable compensation for their losses. And they pay for insurance company lawyers in the form of higher premiums.

Something is seriously wrong with the insurance industry in America. It’s one thing for private groups to make reasonable profits in uneventful times. But we’ve had one natural disaster after another over the past few years. This is what happens when legislatures serve the interests of insurers at the expense of consumers. Some real competition in this industry is sorely needed.

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Posted in Funding Public Programs on September 19th, 2007

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About Radical Avenue

If you want to find criticism of our government here in America, you won’t need to look far. When it comes to politics, it seems that everyone has a grievance. Radical Avenue on the other hand, takes a solutions oriented approach to public policy. It’s radical because I’m proposing fundamental changes to the structure of our government, like transferring commander in chief responsibilities to a small elected group. My philosophy is: Everyone knows we’ve got problems, so what are we going to do about it?

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