Sometimes in the morning and sometimes in the evening, about the time I go to bed and right before I get up, I tell my girlfriend, thanks for being there for me.
Thursday at lunch, Jimbo’s girlfriend told him thanks for being there for her. It’s good the feeling is mutual.
We had a high-stress morning on Thursday and by noon things had calmed down considerably. Jimbo’s girlfriend’s son was in an automobile accident. No one was seriously hurt, but the car he was driving was totaled, in Jimbo‘s uneducated opinion. He was driving down a busy street when a gentleman in a large pickup truck pulled out in front of him and he was not able to avoid running into the pickup truck. He called his mother and she and I drove to the crash site. It was during rush hour, so it took us a while to get there. When we got there a tow truck was collecting the two vehicles. The truck didn’t have much obvious damage, but on closer inspection the front wheels were both turned inward, so it sustained some serious damage, also. The gentleman driving the truck was as nice as one could imagine and realized his mistake and was apologetic, which made the whole thing more palatable. I’ve seen accidents where both parties blamed the other, and fortunately there was none of that going on that morning. The young man’s father (Jimbo’s girlfriend’s ex-husband) called that afternoon and told Jimbo thanks for being there to help that morning. Although I admit I really didn’t do much, it is always good to have someone in times of crisis who can observe the situation from a third-person perspective. Sometimes, no matter how independent you are, it helps to have a little help from your family, friends and even strangers.
In retrospect, everyone was civil, responsible and took care of things in an orderly fashion. Now, it is in the hands of the insurance companies, and I hope things continue to proceed in a civil fashion. The insurance companies have been cordial, so far, but there has been a hassle dealing with them. Perhaps I am just assuming the worst, but I am not a big fan of insurance companies. On Friday, there were eight or ten telephone calls back and forth. The insurance company said the car needed to be moved from the tow lot where it was, then they called back and said not to move it, then called back again and said move it. Any time something like this happens there is always too much paperwork and phone calls back and forth. Having been a middle manager for a number of years, I understand the value and necessity of insurance. I also understand that businesses have a moral responsibility to their shareholders, officers and employees to make a profit, and that includes insurance companies, but everyone has a story about how an insurance company treated them wrong. I appreciate that insurance companies can’t just pay money to any claimant that comes along and they have fiduciary responsibilities to check out all the details. I have had a number of good experiences with insurance companies where something was damaged and I received a fair settlement, but I feel I have been ripped off a few times, too.
Over the last year, I have been trying to find bargains in health insurance and I have found that dealing with health insurance companies is no picnic. I think, perhaps because of my personal bias, that the health insurance system in this country is third world.
For those fans of history, or those old enough to remember, Harry Truman in the late forties worked to get a universal health care insurance system for our country. He failed (obviously, otherwise we’d have one), but despite the obvious economies of scale that would be realized by a universal system, the program was not championed again until the Clinton administration. I liken health insurance to cell phones. Years ago they were a luxury for those who could expend hundreds of dollars a month, but now that everyone has one, they are dirt cheap. The price goes down as more people have them. That is what I mean by economy of scale. I remember in the early nineties people wailed and moaned about the cost of health care, which was borne primarily by businesses who paid most of the cost of health insurance. The Human Resources Manager of the company for which I worked at the time (he was also on the board of directors) told me it would just be a matter of time until the government took the burden off of private industry and there would be universal health care within a few years.
Well, we all remember how the health care industry mounted a campaign against the program and turned public opinion against universal health care. They did more economic damage to this country that one hundred Osama Bin Ladins could have done on the most destructive days of their lives. You may recall that once universal health care was tabled, the cost of health care insurance has soared and the availability of health care insurance has become a luxury for the privileged. The current administration talks about making improvements in health care coverage as if they have no clue what the problem is.
There are too many people without health care coverage because they don’t have jobs; too many people with minimum wage jobs that provide no health care coverage and too few people in the Bush administration who have a clue.
In Jimbo’s world we like to have a little help from our friends. We just wish that the Bush administration liked to help, too.
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