Posted on 02/26/2010 11:35:34 AM PST by pissant
It's puzzling: why don't more people notice that President Obama is a rather weird guy? When he describes his own experiences, they tend to be other-worldly. During the health summit today, Obama related one of his formative experiences with an insurance company; in this case, it was auto insurance:
OBAMA: ... You know, when I was -- when I was young, just got out of college, I had to buy auto insurance. I had a beat-up old car. And I won't name the name of the insurance company, but there was a company, let's call it Acme Insurance in -- in Illinois. And I was paying my premiums every month. After about six months I got rear-ended, and I called up Acme and said, "You know, I'd like to see if I can get my car repaired." And they laughed at me over the phone.
Because really, this was set up not to actually provide insurance, what it was set up was to meet the legal requirements. But it really wasn't serious insurance.
Now, it's one thing if you got an old beat-up car that you can't get fixed. It's another thing if your kid is sick or you've got breast cancer.
Obama's story passed without comment, but it made zero sense. What on earth was he talking about? He had car insurance; his vehicle was rear-ended; he called the insurance company to arrange for repairs; and they laughed at him because it "really wasn't serious insurance" even though it was "set up to meet the legal requirements." Huh?
Automobile insurance (like health insurance) is a heavily regulated industry. In some states, all auto insurance policies are required to include collision coverage. If the cost of the repairs exceeds the value of the "beat-up old car," you get the value of the car. In other states, liability insurance is required but collision coverage is optional. If you prefer to take your chances, you can choose to forgo collision coverage. Obama is a reasonably bright guy; is he telling us that he bought an insurance policy that didn't provide for repairs if he had an accident, but didn't know it?
Further, insurance companies can't just laugh at you over the telephone and say, "Tough luck, sucker. We don't pay our policyholders' claims." Doing so would expose the company to additional damages on top of its liability for repairs and, if repeated, could result in the company's being banned from writing coverage in the state in question.
I can think of three possible explanations for what happened to Obama, assuming his story wasn't a complete fabrication. First, he made a rational decision not to buy collision coverage on his vehicle. But in that case, he can hardly complain if his insurance company told him they didn't cover the damage to his car when he was rear-ended. Second, he could have bought auto insurance from a company that went bankrupt. But in that case, he wouldn't be out of luck, his claim would be picked up by a state fund. Third, he could have bought a high-deductible policy and the damage from being rear-ended was within his deductible. In general, buying high-deductible insurance is a good idea. If either 1) or 3) is correct, is Obama telling us that he is such a dope that the government should re-write his contracts so he can get a benefit he didn't pay for? Maybe so; he is a Democrat, after all.
The more we see of Barack Obama, the stranger he appears to be. Either that, or he is cynically making stuff up to play to an audience that is ignorant with respect to insurance, and much else.
“What are the chances that Obama is pulling this story out of his arse? “
Hey, Joe does it all the time. What else is new?
In other words, he didn’t know the difference between Liability and Full coverage. If he got rear ended, it’s THE OTHER GUY’S INSURANCE that had to pay. What an idiot.
If the Big 0 was rear ended, the other guys insurance should have payed. O’s insurance would not have been an issue.
Your insurance company laughed at you when you called about a claim? Prove it.
You know someone who had to wear her dead sister's false teeth? Prove it.
These people will say anything and make up any story at the drop of a hat. The GOP needs to start calling them on this. No need to be polite about it either.
Correct me if I’m wrong but he also stated that his mother was self employed and didn’t have health insurance. He then stated that when his mother had cancer, she continually argued with the insurance companies to get reimbursed for expenses. If you don’t have insurance, how can you argue with insurance companies?
He needs to wake up and stop comparing heath insurance to car insurance. For example, the pre-existing conditions argument. Bad drivers, speeders, scofflaws and those with a poor accident history, along with those who live in high-risk districts, pay a higher premium for coverage, don’t they? Am I barking up the wrong tree?
Someone should check, but in Illinois I don’t think you were required to have insurance when he got out of college. I don’t know all of the dates, but would be interesting for some enterprising freeper to dig into.
Never mentions that the other driver would have been at fault and his/her insurance would have covered Opossum’s damage.
He probably didn’t want to pay for the collision coverage on his old car. He should have made a claim against the company of the guy who rearended him. What a dumbass.
You do not have comprehensive insurance on an old junk car dummy why would your insurance company pay for an accident that someone rear ended you.
Never happened, I would pay money to see the police report on this alleged accident.
I’d love to see Obama agree to apply the same level of regulation to the federal government as is foisted on health insurance companies by all 50 states, each with their own “required” coverage.
He's either pulling it out of his rear end, not telling the whole story, or he's a total moron.
When you get rear-ended it's almost always the other guy's fault, so you get HIS insurance info, because they're the ones that are going to pay for the damage.
Hates insurance companies, banks, oil companies, coal companies....Hmmm...almost sounds like he hates capitalism...
The only rear ending he got in Chicago was from Larry Sinclair
How about a 99.9% chance and that’s being generous.
As it is, watch this embarrassingly stupid anecdote get quietly swept into the memory-hole.
He was an ahole all day during that farce they called a summit.
He accused others of using talking points-that’s all he did.
Every time someone made a valid point, he would say he wanted to make one point and then yammer on about the same old crap.
Over and over again, no matter what was being discussed, blabbed on about nothing or the tired old crap about pre-existing conditions he always spouts.
The only point of it all was to drown out Republicans and draw attention away from their valid points.
Anyone with half a brain watching this thing yesterday knows that our sorry excuse for a president is an overrated dickhead.
“What are the chances that Obama is pulling this story out of his arse?”
Pretty good. I just read here a few days ago about someone who had gone to Occidental college with him saying he drove a BMW there.
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