The Big Gamble

J. Kevin Tumlinson

Here's a scenario for you. Let's say you and your buddies load up and head for Las Vegas. You're psyched. You're pumped up and ready to throw some bones. Come on seven, Papa needs a new pair of Hush Puppies!

So you get to the casino and you hit the craps table. You throw down a few hundred bucks and get your number one romance to blow on the dice for luck, and you roll. Seven! Lucky winner! You licked the odds and now you're going to clear a few grand!

The dealer smiles as you reach for your winnings, then says, "There's a $250 deductible for winning in this casino."

You stare blankly for a few moments, powerless to stop him as he reaches over and grabs your wallet, takes out his $250 and then closes the casino so you can't play anymore. Does this sound shocking but familiar?

It might. You've probably dealt with something exactly like it. It's called INSURANCE! The very mention of the word makes my blood boil!

The entire industry of insurance is a hot button, but let us deal, for just a moment, specifically with auto insurance. First of all, the government has decreed that if you own and drive a vehicle, you must have auto insurance. At a minimum you must carry liability insurance. However, the government does NOTHING to regulate the cost of the insurance, and there is hardly any regulation of the way an insurance company does business. It is left entirely up to the company to decide rates, increases, and whether or not to continue representing you after an accident.

Those issues are irritating enough, but throw in the fact of a deductible and now we're having a real anger dance party. What is this? I've been paying anywhere from $80 to $120 per month for the past fifteen years or so. What happened to all of that money? Shouldn't I be paid up? Am I to believe that the insurance company is $250 short, so I'll have to make up the difference?

Am I missing something? I was always under the impression that this is what insurance was FOR. I'm paying an exorbitant monthly fee (well, exorbitant by my standards) in order to cover the cost of repairs later. Never mind that an automotive accident isn't a sure thing, and the odds are against it. I dutifully pay the cost so I can avoid the possibility of great expense. So why a deductible?

I pay a monthly fee to prepare for a contingency. The contingency is that I MAY have an accident, and if I do then the insurance company must pay for the damages. If I go a full year without an accident, I certainly don't get any of my money back, so it's my loss. But with a deductible the insurance company is saying, "You rolled seven! Now we have to pay! That'll be $250."

As for health insurance, I've never encountered a greater evil. Recently I went to the emergency room for chest pains. It turned out to be nothing, for which I was grateful, and I handed over my insurance information and was on my way. Two weeks later I receive a letter from the hospital claiming that my insurance company is refusing payment on the grounds that this is a "pre-existing condition." Pre-existing? I had just started having chest pains the day before! Did they mean it existed before I got the policy or before I went to the hospital? I'd had the policy for nearly a year before I experienced chest pains. I went to the hospital a couple of days after, so they have me there. I suppose I really should have gone in complaining about my chest hurting a week or two before the pain started.

I've heard similar stories from others. It seems that some companies have a habit of labeling everything "pre-existing." I can only assume that they intend to fight every claim so that they do not have to pay. Which may be just as well, since companies such as this tend to drop a policy holder if they do make a claim.

I should have the option to say that I do not want or need insurance, shouldn't I? I have the right to say that I don't want to gamble. I can refuse to buy a lottery ticket. I can choose not to go to a casino. Why can't I decide not to gamble on having an accident?

I would rather take my $80 per month and drop it into a nice, interest bearing bank account. The account could be ear-marked "insurance," making it so the money can only be made available as part of a claim. The government could check to see that I have an account, set some sort of minimum balance for it, and decree that I must continue to put a minimum amount in it each month. Bully for them. And if I never have to pay out, I can retire, sell my car and put the insurance money into a nice set of Callaway golf clubs.

It's not a perfect system, but at least I would know where the money is going. And I can never, ever turn myself down or demand a deductible. Well, I COULD, but I won't.

J. Kevin Tumlinson is a writer and a schoolteacher living in Lake Jackson, TX. He needs a new pair of shoes.