Insurance companies ... the good guys?

[Auggie]

David Sirota / The Creative Destruction of Misguided Ideology

... private insurance is the conservative ideologue's favored method of assessing danger and managing risk, for it is a purely free-market instrument. Indeed, as a right-wing activist would readily admit, private insurance focuses exclusively on the dollars and cents of actuarial analyses, and it bases prices on data and empiricism, not on fact-free political ideology and poll-tested platitudes.

So, then, what happens when the insurance industry so touted by the conservative movement starts saying things that wholly contradict that movement's talking points?

<SNIP>

The first comes from the insurance industry's official think tank, the Geneva Association. Rejecting conservatives' opposition to the fight against climate change, the organization issued a study documenting "a significant upward trend in the insured losses caused by extreme weather events." It concluded that the insurance industry should fight back against the conservative movement's attempts to downplay climate change fears and "play an active role in raising awareness of risk and climate change." It also called for a "transition to a low-carbon economy" and "the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions" because that "will ultimately create a more resilient society."

Then came a dispatch from the Des Moines Register, which reported that the company insuring most Kansas schools "has refused to renew coverage for schools that permit teachers and custodians to carry concealed firearms on their campuses." The announcement was a rebuke to a new Kansas law that responded to the Newtown, Conn.

MORE: http://www.creators.com/liberal/david-sirota/the-creative-destruction-of-misguided-ideology.html

Money talks. Sometimes it yells "bullshit!"

[Recursion]

1. On stuff like this they'll be on the side of facts, sure

I mean, that's their job: assess the realistic risk of something. Both climate change and armed teachers are realistic risks.

As a separate problem, they're also very good at assessing the realistic risk that a given person will develop a health condition that requires millions of dollars to be treated. This is why if they're going to remain a major part of how we fund health care, they need pretty strict regulation.

[Auggie]

2. Health insurers are a different topic

[Ohio Joe]

3. heh... Sorry but...

Insurance companies are in no way, shape or form 'good guys'. They are vultures.