Runnels: Professional square deal

My health insurance just jumped seventy-five dollars on the month.

Now, I really like to stop in to see my friendly insurance man each month and lay him down a fat check, which means I’m bettin’ somethin’ bad is goin’ to happen to me.

And, if everything goes accordin’ to ol’ Ma Nature and percentages, it will. Although I’ve paid in all these years and never collected a dime, my rates still come up.

I guess when you get old enough and your percentages are bad enough, the insurance company can then cancel you out.

I can remember when the insurance men ran around tryin’ to get your business. Now due to our law makers they can get pretty huffy, and you still have to pay the premium.

The insurance man tells me that it is due to the greedy medical profession. “Do you know how much it costs to spend just one day in the hospital?” says he.

I guess it runs in to the thousands, and from what I’ve seen of them hospital rooms they ain’t blowin’ the lid off on convenience or décor.

You talk to the people in the medical profession and they all tell me it’s because of the lawyers.

You see, these lawyers are the birds what make these laws where you can sue the docs for malpractice, and so his insurance premiums go up.

But law makers come around and tell me that they make these laws to protect me against the insurance companies, and the inadequate medical treatment.

It looks to me like I’m in a poker game where there is a lawyer, a doctor, and an insurance man. I never get to call the game or deal the cards.

If the insurance man pulls a bad hand, he just reaches over in my chips to replace his.

The doctor always names the game, and if the lawyer don’t like the rules, he just changes them.

A feller like me has to have some pretty good cards to even stay in the game. There is little hope of winnin’ and the only way to get out is to die quick.

If you only have a heart attack the doctor will fix you up with the aid of that insurance policy that you had to hire the lawyer to collect.

They know when I quit the game someone else will take the losin’ chair.

Courtesy of Tom Runnels Publications. Copyrighted and Registered by Tom Runnels and Saundra Runnels Revocable Trust. Printed in The Banner Press: Nov. 10, 1988.