Serf in a “Free Market”
Published Dec 7th, 2009
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This article is for those Americans who think the “free market” solves everything…
Today, I got my Bristol West auto policy renewal. First of all, let me fine tune this and point out that Bristol West is owned by Farmers Insurance Group. Not enough corporate layering for you? Then let me add that Farmers Insurance Group is owned by Zurich Financial Services Group of Zurich, Switzerland. I believe it’s important to know just how many levels of billion-dollar companies there are in the entity I will be on equal bargaining ground with as I wield my mighty leverage as a consumer in this “free market.”
So when the state of Wisconsin became the second-to-last state (New Hampshire is still the hold-out) to mandate that all motorists carry minimum levels of car insurance, Bristol West, like many other insurers jumped at the chance to hike up their rates. “Wait a minute,” you say! If MORE people are buying insurance, then why would rates go UP? With more people in the insurance pool, rates should go down, right? Isn’t that the argument Massachusetts Republicans made as they crowded around their Republican governor to get mandatory HEALTH coverage passed in their state? In 2005, Governor Mitt Romney fortified this movement by repeating the platitude “personal responsibility” when promoting his plan to forcibly insure everyone in his state by making it illegal not to carry your OWN insurance.
You see, it’s about “PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY.”
It’s not about “CORPORATE” responsibility. It’s about “PERSONAL” responsibility. However, I have been personally responsible about my auto coverage for decades and after the Wisconsin law, which mandates auto coverage, went into effect in July, I already had the minimum required coverage, except apparently for Medical Payments. The state wants $10,000 and I had $1,000. No problem, GEICO only charges $6.30 for $10,000 worth of Medical Payments coverage. Other insurers I checked were about the same–all under $10. Not Zurich-Farmers-Bristol West, though. Apparently $10,000 Medical Payments coverage at my company is $19.00. So, did my policy increase from $205 in July to $224 for the renewal period? No. It increased $51 to $256 with no other explanation given–A 25% increase! Twenty-five percent! Well, it’s about “personal responsibility” so I must have done something to deserve a whopping 25% increase in my car insurance premiums. Let’s see, did I have any accidents during the last coverage period? No. Did I have any traffic citations during the last coverage period? No. Have I had ANY accidents or traffic citations in the last FIVE years? No. In fact, my agent told me at the last coverage renewal period that my premium would go DOWN because when I first signed up with Bristol West a year ago, I had a “lapse in coverage” when I decided to store my truck for awhile and use public transit. Premiums are higher if you have had a lapse in coverage, but only initially. At the first renewal, that lapse is gone and that penalty to your premium is eliminated.
Well, if I had no lapse in coverage, no accidents, no traffic citations, Medical Payments coverage is under $10 across the board and now ALL Wisconsin drivers have been forcefully added to the insurance pool, where does this $51, 25% increase in my coverage come from?
The answer is: Companies like Zurich-Farmers-Bristol West raise rates NOT because of “personal responsibility” or to balance market forces, but because they CAN! They can because they’re way bigger than any one of us will ever be. THIS is how the “free market” works. Because Republicans grovel at the feet of all corporate giants–something commonly done when you’re a free, liberated citizen–they believe corporations are of god-like stature and through them and the magic powers of the “free market,” consumer subjects like you and I will prosper with low, low prices and the highest level of efficiency. Only the GOVERNMENT takes away your freedoms.
Now, take my auto insurance situation and apply it to something as ingenious as Mandatory Health Care through Private Insurance. Just two years after the push for “personal responsibility” began in Massachusetts, health insurance premiums went up 7% to 14% and co-payments increased as well. This is at a time when profits rose 428% at 10 of the nation’s largest insurance companies from 2000 to 2007.
CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY is not even on the radar scope. According to Republicans, corporations do not need to worry about responsibility because the “free market” cures any abuse and the consumer is always “free” to vote with their dollar and go to another company. What’s strange about that argument though is that I left GEICO after seven years because my premiums kept going up for no reason, every year, beyond the rate of inflation. I voted with my dollar and went to Zurich-Farmers-Bristol West where I was certain my power as a consumer would surge again and yield total subservience from the insurance industry. Apparently, that elixir wore off because a year later, I’m the serf again in this feudal system Republicans call the “free market.”
Well, I’m sure the Zurich-Farmers-Bristol West manor is doubling the number of guards around its fortress as I prepare to lay siege as a consumer and refuse to pay that 25% increase in my premium. Or, maybe they’re just laughing all the way to the bank at my expense.
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