Contributed by DareToAct
Delay, Denied, Defend by Jay M. Feinman.
A book on how insurance companies in the US used tactics to refuse claims. The author said that in 1990s, insurance companies hired consultants to help them redesign claim processes. It transformed claim departments from customer service centers to profit centers and changed claims adjustors job scope from "assisting customers" to "helping company save money".
The sad state is that consumers do not know enough to know that they have been taken advantage of. And those who know so do not know how to go about getting their money back. The most shameful thing of all is that insurance commissioners were busy making sure that the insurance companies have enough reserves set aside to pay for claims but did not do enough to ensure fair treatment of claimants.
DareToAct
Perhaps that's why with greater legal, contractual, and information asymmetry, the insurers are better able to set aside more of the policyholders' funds to "play around" with. Using riskier techniques and more fanciful assets generates greater fees for insurers, while "promising" customers of potentially greater non-guaranteed future returns, but of course the insurers are also protected in case those future returns are lousy. Heads I win, tails you lose.
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