Insurance companies suck, too

I just started a business relationship with Appreciation Boxes (a link is on my page) and one of the major benefits is that I can purchase health insurance. It is with a different company than the thieving bastages professional insurance company I am currently sort of insured with.
Forget that the new company has already lost parts of the application at least once. I can only presume they will get better. My current company, which rhymes with Schmaetna, has been pretty bad as apparently I am only covered if I get sick during an eclipse. On a Wednesday. In a year divisible by 4. Unless it rains more than average.

And it only cost me $650 per month for just me with no scripts.

I have to wonder just how much money gets stolen wasted by insurance companies. I know when my car insurance was supposed to pay for my loan when I lost my job due to injury, they "lost" my paperwork every other month. Of the 12 months I was eligible, they made 3 payments. Bastards.

When my Mom passed away, it took years to get the inurance companies to settle the claims. They had no problem taking payments for decades, but when it was time to pay up, well, you wouldn't believe how many times things "got lost." And how often they were confused and befuddled. At one point, they didn't understand that if they were on the phone with the executor of an estate it meant the insured had passed away and was not able to come to the phone. My sister handled that, and had to explain to more than one "agent" that little fact and bit of tricky language trivia.

And the latest?

In order to prove to the new company that I had insurance before, I have to get something from the old company.

I called Schmaetna, and after waiting for an interminably long time due to various "time saving menus," I had to talk to customer service. Funny name. Here, I expected service, and it turns into a DIY project. They operate exactly like a modern company as after all this is 1957 2009.

Here's the procedure: I need to fax or mail a letter to them letting them know I no longer want their insurance.
OK, I suppose that is good. It would prevent someone from just calling in and screwing up another's insurance because at least they will have some sort of written proof.
But here's where it gets stupid. They will then mail me a letter confirming that they have my cancellation, which I can then send to the new company. The new company said it may take up to 30 days to get everything in the system.

Excuse me--30 days? A transaction this simple should take, at most, a few minutes, and they told me to call after 30 days to see if it's done?

Ok, bear in mind, there is nothing to input except a checkmark indicating that I had insurance in the past. Possibly, they may need to enter the account number of the old insurance.
30 days? 30 minutes would be a ridiculously long time.

These morons have simply instituted an entire layer of annoyance just to justify higher costs. Costs that are regulated by the gubmint, the same gubmint with elected officials who are so heavily financed by insurance companies. Sure gives one pause, doesn't it?

I'm pretty cranky about this. I'll make it up to you with a funny post tomorrow, The Tale of the Bumble Beetle.

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