Annals of Insurance Scams

Well, it's all a scam really, innit? In the case in question, it appears that private insurance cos. are gumming up the Social Security disability works for their own potential profit. Having spent much of the day dealing w/ a governmental bureaucracy, we're doing no further original work on this, but handing it to the NYT & Slate (who brought it to our attention). At least some people pull their weight around here! Slate sez:

The New York Times leads with a lawsuit that claims insurance companies are costing the Social Security system millions of dollars every year by forcing people who file disability claims with them to also apply for money from the federal program even if it's clear that they'll be denied. These insurers often force claimants to appeal the denial, thus costing more money and delaying benefits for people who really need the government program.

And adds:

Insurers who pay out long-term disability insurance want claimants to try to get Social Security benefits because it would cut down on the amount of money the private company would have to pay out every month. The problem is that the government program defines disability much more stringently than private companies and usually doesn't pay out money unless the person can't do any job at all. But everyone still has the right to apply for Social Security benefits and each case must be investigated, which is why even the ones that are obvious denials cost time and money for an already-strapped system. These costs are then multiplied when insurers force claimants to appeal a denial again and again.

We thought we had mentioned this item, covering the underfunding aspect of the backlog, when it first came to our attention, but perhaps it was in private correspondence, as we couldn't find anything in Just Another Bum™ concerning it. Today's story reveals another cause, corporate greed & malfeasance. What would Megan "Free market solutions are groovy, the gov't. always screws things up!" McArdle type about this, one must wonder. A huge backlog, caused in part by fascist corporations, & partly by gov't. underfunding, directly affecting us, the editorial we here at Just Another Bum™. Whom do we murder first?