Reply #4: ...and the collapse of medical insurance hasn't yet hit Main St.

[DulceDecorum]

In Kansas City, Kan., another doctor, Joel N. Schroeder, is considering filing for bankruptcy. He is unable to pay a $750,000 malpractice claim that a state judge levied against him on behalf of survivors of an elderly stroke victim. Before the case went to trial, Dr. Schroeder, who contested the accusation, learned that his malpractice insurer, the same as Dr. Slemp's, had imploded.
Both men had coverage from a company called Reciprocal of America. Their lives, and those of thousands of other doctors and lawyers in the South and the Midwest, have been in flux since Reciprocal cratered about two years ago amid a tangled web of business transactions that regulators describe as fraudulent.
<snip>
IN a startling turn of events, the Reciprocal investigation produced information that led to the ouster of Maurice R. Greenberg, the iron-fisted chairman and chief executive of American International Group, the insurance giant.
Berkshire Hathaway, the holding company of Warren E. Buffett, acquired General Re in 1998. This January, as Berkshire lawyers scoured General Re's accounts to respond to Justice Department queries about Reciprocal, they disclosed a questionable insurance transaction that A.I.G. used to improperly spruce up its books.
<snip>
Virginia regulators say they have uncovered improper transactions between General Re and Reciprocal dating back to 1990. But the most significant deals, they said, began in early 2000, after General Re determined that Reciprocal had underpriced its malpractice coverage and was going to be slammed with heavy losses.
<snip>
In the fall of 2001, Reciprocal was confronting nine-month losses totaling $90 million. So the company made its computer programmers work overtime, regulators say. On Nov. 7, 2001, they say, the programmers spent an entire night reducing scores of anticipated claims by about $19 million and then backdated the doctored accounts.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050417/ZNYT01/504170424/1001/BUSINESS

Osama bought them a few more years of peace and quiet
which is why you do NOT hear these insurance companies complaining bitterly about September 11.

When the US Virgin Islands were hit by Hurricane Hugo, the roofs of the hospitals there were blown off. The feds have regulations and will not give money to a hospital with no roof, electricity or running water. It must first come up to code before it can receive federal money.
No insurance company will allow their clients to practise medicine in such a place where they could easily get sued.
This means that the only medical insurance now availible in the USVI is an air ambulance evacuation service to take you off Gilligan's Island.
The entire medical industry in the US is dependent on the insurance companies and they have pretty much collapsed. The publicly-traded HMO are tettering on the brink and MDs are now having a very hard time just making ends meet.

The Javits-Wagner-O’Day (JWOD) Program creates jobs and training opportunities for people who are blind or who have other severe disabilities. Its primary means of doing so is by requiring Government agencies to purchase selected products and services from nonprofit agencies employing such individuals. As a result, JWOD employees are able to lead more productive and independent lives.
http://www.jwod.com/aboutjwodprograms.aspx

The Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act of 1971, 41 U.S.C. 46-48c
is now defunct. ALL jobs are being outsourced.
Coming soon, soylent green.