The current anti-smoking campaign is
not about your health ...
It is all about
YOUR MONEY... They want it!
Insurance Companies Profit from Smoking
It was my general understanding that insurance companies
charged its customers a premium for insurance policies which they in turn
reinvested to cover the eventual payouts. Insurance companies earn investment
profits on float or collected in insurance premiums that has not
been paid out in claims. Insurers start investing insurance premiums as soon as
they are collected and continue to earn interest on them until claims are paid
out.
Profit = earned premium + investment income - incurred loss -
underwriting expenses.
The more efficiently they did that, the more
money they made.
Apparently, they have not done that very well and now
expect somebody to bail them out of their bad investments. As we learned in
2007 and '08, the big insurance companies had invested in the derivatives
market and lost $Trillions. As a result of AIG's inability to support its many
Credit Default Swap commitments, American taxpayers were called upon to provide
$180 billion to bail them out of their financial mess.
Seeing an
opportunity to capitalize on the hyped-up public hysteria about smoking and
recognizing the "deep pockets" of the tobacco industry, the insurance industry
has chosen to target the tobacco industry and cigarette smokers to further line
their pockets with ill-gotten profits.
Consider Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Minnesota who sued cigarette makers to recover $1.77 billion they say
they spent to treat smoking-related illnesses. What in the world were they
supposed to do with that $1.77 billion? That's supposedly the business they're
in ... taking your money to pay for your health costs.
So much for
their policy holders revenues to cover their profits ... these are some greedy
folks. Not only did they get money for the original insurance policy, but they
got paid again for fulfilling their obligations to cover the health costs of
their clients! Not bad.
And, apparently, it wasn't only health care
costs the insurance companies needed to recoup. Feeling pretty proud about
their deception of the American public and their burgeoning windfall of
stealing more of your money, they rewarded themselves pretty well with salary
increases that exceed the total income of many of their victims.
Median annual earnings of full-time wage and
salaried underwriters rose to $48,550 in 2004, up from about $30,800 in 1994.
The middle 50 percent increased their earnings to between $37,490 and $65,450 a
year, up from between $22,000 and $40,500 10 years ago. The lowest 10 percent
almost doubled their income from $18,600 to $30,410; the top 10 percent
increased to more than $86,110 a year, up from $54,800.
In March 2009,
it was publicly disclosed that the American International Group (AIG) was to
pay approximately $218 million in bonus payments to employees of its financial
services division. |
As politicians and Americans across the nation are
debating health care reform and nationalized health care, their
conversations are about the wrong issues. Instead of debating public options or
doctor choice, what they really should be talking about is how long the
criminals in the insurance and banking industries should be spending in jail
for their
fraud and theft of the American taxpayer.
I repeat
my original premise: "The current anti-smoking campaign is not about your
health ... It is all about YOUR MONEY... They want it!
Insurance
Hypocrisy
When was the last time you
saw a smoker swerving down the road, running over pedestrians, or crossing the
center lane hitting another car head-on?
So, why do smokers often pay
more for automobile insurance?
Does the
insurance agents ask you if you drink liquor? Of course not, but they do often
ask whether you're a smoker. Now, who's more likely to cause an automobile
accident ... someone on his 10th cigarette or someone on his 10th highball?
Cigarettes were not cited as a contributor to the 120 mph auto crash that
killed Diana, Princess of Wales, and her two companions. But, the driver was
found to be drunk.
Hardly a week passes without newspaper reports of
accidents, shootings, and robberies related to alcohol-use, but do they make an
issue or charge you extra if you drink?
"We have a situation in the United States where we're spending
$15 billion on the war on drugs, and yet we allow billions of dollars to be
freely spent to promote the drug (alcohol) that kills more than any other
drug." - U. S. Representative
Joseph P. Kennedy II
What's replacing the banned tobacco ads? Alcohol and
drugs! As if we don't have enough drunk drivers on the roads already, more and
more people are being encouraged to drink through an increase of liquor
advertising. No double standard here!
In another move to heighten the
hypocrisy of the anti-smoking movement, as of Jan. 1, 1998, California has
banned smoking from even within, of all places, Bars. Oh, it's okay to get
drunk before getting out on the streets and highways, but God forbid that you
should smoke a cigarette while getting inebriated. What an act of
foolishness!
- The median age at which children begin drinking is just
over 13 years old.
- 26% of eighth graders, 40% of tenth graders, and 50% of
twelfth graders report having used alcohol in the past month.
- 18% of eighth graders, 38% of tenth graders, and 52% of
twelfth graders report having been drunk at least once in the last year.
- One-quarter of sixth graders say it is "fairly easy" or
"very easy" to get beer. 15% say it is easy to get liquor. A study conducted in
Washington, D.C., revealed that 19- and 20-year-old males were able to purchase
a six-pack of beer in 97 out of 100 attempts.
- Among ninth grade students, alcohol or other drug use,
or a combination of substances, was the best predictor of early sexual
activity. For youth, alcohol use more than any other single factor is
indirectly responsible for more pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, and
HIV infections.
- Many of the radio stations on which Seagram airs gin
ads feature youth-oriented rock and roll or album-oriented rock formats that
target audiences officially designated 18 and above. In reality, many younger
teens listen to those stations.
It should be clear to anyone who can read (those who can't
already don't believe them) that these anti-smoking "do-gooders" really don't
care one whit about you, your children, or your health. They do care about your
money, however. So much so that they will do anything and say anything to
convince you to give more of it to them.
Consider the success they
have already had in recent years in convincing you to give them more of your
money.
Personal Consumption
Expenditures (billons of dollars) Source: Bureau of
Economic Analysis, U.S. Dept. of Commerce
|
1989 |
1990 |
1991 |
1992 |
1993 |
1994 |
1995 |
Tobacco Products |
40.5 |
43.4 |
43.8 |
49.6 |
47.0 |
47.7 |
47.2 |
Drug preparations |
55.0 |
60.6 |
70.9 |
75.0 |
77.9 |
81.7 |
85.7 |
Physicians |
121.6 |
133.8 |
152.1 |
167.2 |
172.9 |
179.8 |
189.8 |
Hospitals & Nursing Care |
209.5 |
231.3 |
293.4 |
320.0 |
344.4 |
363.8 |
383.6 |
Health Insurance |
31.2 |
36.6 |
37.3 |
42.7 |
51.7 |
57.0 |
61.3 |
Tobacco products show an increase of only 16.5% of
Americans spending between 1989 and 1995 compared with an increase of
56% for drug preparations and physicians, 83% increase for
hospitals & nursing care, and a whopping 96%
increase for health insurance.
According to a survey by
Modern Healthcare magazine, half of all hospital CEO's earned $165,500 or more
in 1995. |
I ask you, "Who's getting your money?"
Motivation for
Deception
Take a look at the following data comparing revenues of
the insurance and tobacco industries between 1989 and 1995. You'll notice the
revenues of the leading insurance companies have been drastically reduced while
the revenues in the tobacco industry have increased.
Insurance Revenues
(millions of dollars) |
|
1989 |
1995 |
Prudential Insurance of America |
129,118 |
41,330 |
Metropolitan Life Insurance |
98,740 |
27,977 |
New York Life Ins. |
37,302 |
16,202 |
Aetna Life & Casualty |
52,023 |
12,978 |
|
|
|
Tobacco Revenues
(millions of dollars) |
|
1989 |
1995 |
Phillip Morris |
39,069 |
53,139 |
R.J. Reynolds |
15,224 |
16,008 |
American Brands |
7,265 |
5,905 |
Universal |
2,920 |
3,281 |
UST |
670 |
1,300 |
Source: The World
Almanac and Book of Facts, 1997 |
Do you see any clue here as to what industry might have a
reason to assault another industry? I would suggest the insurance industry has
a high motivation to disparage the tobacco industry, and they have gained the
support of government bureaucrats and many deceived Americans in stealing your
money.
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