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Are You Really
Insured?
Don’t be So Sure… (the rest of the story)
Why Our Insurance... We were hit
by a 16 year old girl in a stolen SUV (uninsured, of course) .. a
vehicle much larger than ours. She and her girlfriend were out for a joy
ride. She was busy tuning the radio and couldn't be bothered trying to
focus on her illegal driving... by the time we went to juvenal court,
she was about 6 months pregnant... where were this kids parents
anyway!!!
Juvenal court... I think any court
for that matter (would have) posed a totally unexpected assault on me,
my business and my injuries. Little did I know that I'd be attacked by
her attorney to verify this, give a reason for that, etc. I was only
about 9 months into my recovery at the time and literally couldn't
think. Some of the problems that resulted from the brain injury... an
inability to find words while speaking, an inability to handle pressure,
an inability to be around too much stimuli, painful PAINFUL headaches,
the need to sleep, the inability to focus or concentrate... etc. You can
imagine what a bad witness I was when all my brain would let me do was
stumble and fumble along.
In case you've suffered a brain injury,
I'll just continue with the symptoms so you know what's real and
(hopefully) be able to accept your situation better. Now, at two years
+, my doctor says I'm as good as I'll get (my brain, anyhow). I still
can't do simple math (I used to do complicated math in my head). Even a
calculator doesn't help because I can't remember the logic. I still lose
words. I forget lots of things... even to read with I've written down so
I won't forget. I tried to help a friend start up a business... I made
soooooo many mistakes with orders it was really embarrassing. I get to a
state of almost panic when in a crowd... like the time I thought I could
attend a conference and found that I couldn't remember the names of
people I'd known well, couldn't even remember the name of the person I
went with, stuttered and stammered when I was trying to speak with
people, etc. The problem of too much stimuli is still a big issue. My
doctor says "I can't think on my feet" anymore. And that's
exactly what I was so good at as a public speaker. So much for that
career:-(
Whiplash... there was a time when
I would have questioned someone with a whiplash injury. You can't really
see it. If you haven't had one, you can't identify with it. But boy, is
it painful. You're lugging around about a 12 pound head all day and that
wears those muscles right out. Even now I'm often in bed by 8pm... not
because I'm tired, but because I can't hold my head up any more!
Medical Expenses... whatever
medical coverage you have on your auto policy is nothing compared to
what you might have to shell out. And, your health insurance company, if
they pay for your treatment at all, will likely have to be reimbursed
out of your settlement. Not only that, but you still have to pay all
your deductables, travel to doctors (I was going about 5 times a week at
first), pay out of pocket for prescription co-pays, and all the types of
medical that your insurance might not cover like cognitive testing,
psychologists (I tried to kill my cat one day and didn't even know I had
slipped into such a state of depression), chiropractors, etc.
Why were all the business expenses
still going... If you're a business person, you know that you can't
simply turn a business on or off. I have people contact me after not
having done business with them for years.. simply because my phone
number and address hasn't changed.
But also, as a business owner, you have
to be a perpetual optimist. If I had three days in a row that I felt
good I would declare myself healed and try to get some work done... only
to find out that would commit me to staying in bed for the next week. I
never ever could imagine that I wouldn't fully recover 'any day now.' It
wasn't until about 18 months post-accident that the reality really
started to set in.
What about Social Security
Disability... I tried to look into it on 4 different occasions. I
either lost the paperwork or couldn't figure out how to fill it out...
remember, I had NO brain power at all for a while. By the time I had
recovered some of my cognitive ability... enough to fill out the
paperwork, I again mistakenly thought I'd be making money again very
soon.
Disability Insurance... If I had
been smarter, I'd have had disability insurance, but I didn't. I now
know it's a must for entrepreneurs.
The Insurance Issue... Like most
people, I probably bought my insurance for all the wrong reasons. I
worked with a friend who was affiliated with a large, very well-known
company. Now that I look them up on the California
Department of Insurance's website I find they are #26 out of the 50
in the legitimate complaints about how they settle claims. They're not
the worst, but they're FAR from the best.
It takes money to make money... Because
I have to rely primarily on advertising and PR instead of networking and
personal contacts I need some money to get an advertising program
together. The longer the insurance company refused to come to a
realistic settlement, the longer it'll take me to put an advertising
program in place that will get me some income again. What will I do? I
have a few ideas of things that I can do from here... stock photography,
selling genealogy reports & pictures on people who originally
settled in the gold country, sell my husband's art nationwide, sell
dried flowers for floral arrangements (sounds hokey, but a $4 a stem, I
can grow a lot of flowers on 20 acres... if I had a little capital to
get it going!!!)
My Income... I certainly wasn't
making a fortune... when I met my husband 11 years ago my priorities
shifted from "making it to the cover of INC magazine" to
getting a "real" life (by my interpretation) living out here in the
country. But I was bringing in plenty of money to pay all our bills for
the 4-5 years when Ric's illness didn't allow him to make much. And,
once he was diagnosed, treated, and up to his full earning capacity, we
were looking forward to doing a few of the extra things in 2000 that we
hadn't been able to with just my income.
Financial Records...
I keep pretty good financial records, and working from home, am able to
write off quite a bit to business. But now, the insurance company wants
to see my 1099's (apparently my Schedule C isn't enough for them even
though it is for IRS). Well 1099's don't reflect all my income. I
offered an advertising CD for speakers, and they'd pay for a product,
and thus never issued a 1099. That accounts for probably 50% of my
income the two years prior to the accident, but without 1099's they're
now saying they won't allow it. Maybe IRS should hire insurance
underwriters as enforcers. They certainly want to disregard the rules
that two major institutions (IRS & Banks) look at when assessing the
value or income of a business.
In addition, and this is
REALLY important, in previous court cases, all ongoing expenses, those
things that you must keep going while your ill or injured like
telephones, websites, office space, etc., are added back in to the
bottom line profit, yet the insurance company claimed no knowledge of
this court ruling and was only taking my bottom line "profit"
to calculate my lost income. Once the other ongoing expenses were added
back in it upped the true loss by about $150,000. My attorney seemed not
to understand how this worked and so never really fought for it
(although he did hook me up with a CPA that did know it and has been a
BIG help). The CPA cost another $3500 however, that comes right off the
top of whatever settlement we get.
Now we're going back to the
insurance company with yet another, amended demand.
Wish us luck. I think the
real battle has just begun.
If you have an insurance
war-story you'd like to share, please send it my way. I intend to
publish as many as I can and maybe all the publicity about its deceitful
ways will force the industry to clean up its act. Who knows, maybe I'll
become the Ralph Nadar of auto insurance when I grow up.
7/22/02 Update. We're
just days away from our third anniversary from our accident and still
not a dime (well they did pay for our car, but our uninsured motorist
coverage hasn't done a thing for us) from Farmers Insurance. Our
attorney has had to file a motion with the court to get Farmers to set a
date for arbitration. We've been trying to do so for about 12 months and
they don't even bother to respond. One
of our cars broke down ... way down. It can't be repaired, so we'll just
have to figure out how to live with one for a while. Bills
are stacking up. Our credit rating is down the tubes. And we don't have
a clue when we'll get any money. In
the meantime, I'm trying not to be depressed. Get a business up and
running with computers that are obsolete, and keep a house glued
together because we can't even afford routine maintenance stuff anymore.
The little cash reserve we had is long gone unfortunately.
So, ladies and gentlemen. Don't be as stupid as me. GET DISABILITY
INSURANCE. Have a plan in case you are laid up. And check the
ratings on your insurance carrier before it's too late!
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