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Having no national system of catastrophic health insurance, we have, through the courts, managed to patch together pieces of a not very satisfactory one.

Andrew Tobias

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Andrew Tobias
Age: 77
Born: 1947
Born: April 20
Journalist
Writer
Insurance
Managed
National
Court
Catastrophic
Health
Satisfactory
Pieces
Patch
System
Patches
Together
Courts

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Rule of thumb: The more trimmings an insurance plan has and the harder someone is pitching it, the faster you should run.
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In short: Readily available low-cost life insurance would be a threat to the industry, and whatever threatens the life insurance industry threatens America.
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No wonder lawyers, who control the legal system, have fought so hard, and with great success, against no fault insurance. No fault, no lawsuits. No lawsuits, no lunch.
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The industry cannot long offer unneeded or overpriced insurance if people will not buy it.
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The life insurance industry is filled with good people who believe in their work and their companies, but who may never have challenged the assumptions underlying their efforts.
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It's very nice to be able to be who you are.
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The life insurance policies advertised on the radio with the line You cannot be turned down for this coverage! are actually saying, For policies this small, it would cost us more to decide whom to turn down than simply to accept everybody - and make them pay through the nose.
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But successful investors tend to be not too self-destructive. They tend to be patient, they tend not to follow the crowd, and they tend not to be too guilty about winning.
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One of the advantages of the book's having been out there for more than a quarter century is that there's been time for people to report back on what it's done for them.
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Now listen. You can't fool all the people all the time-- but I want you to try.
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The best thing I have are 5 percent bonds from 1780, denominated from $1 to $20. As far as I can tell, they are obligations from the United States of America, so I should be able to walk down to the Federal Reserve and redeem the uncanceled ones. With 217 years of accrued interest, for a $20 bond, that's about $800,000.
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Still, most people don't have much money. So finding ways to come out a couple of thousand dollars ahead every year still matters.
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There's no such thing as altruism.
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Not surprisingly, the insurance lobby recoils in horror at the prospect of automatic coverage (including, when it was first proposed, Social Security), no matter how efficient it may be. Automatic coverage eliminates sales commissions and profit.
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