When dealing with insurance companies, you will quickly realize they are the most hypocritical companies around. The government forces you to do business with them, and yet the former requires little to no regulation. Herein lies the first part of the hypocrisy: you pay premiums because it’s the law. But the minute you make a claim, your rates go up or they drop you completely. And that’s just the beginning.

When you make an injury claim, insurance companies scrutinize your injury with a fine tooth comb. If you have any history of a similar injury in the last decade, they will try and claim it as unrelated to the accident (i.e. aggravation of an old injury). This previous injury could be years old and you could have zero symptoms, but somehow this is an old injury and not a new one caused by the negligence of their insured driver. On the other hand, if you have a three week gap in treatment, the insurance company will play the old injury in their favor, arguing that you injured yourself from something other than the accident. In their eyes, it’s okay to relate a 10 year gap in treatment to an old injury, but it’s not OK for you to relate a three week gap in treatment to the accident.

Most disconcerting though, is that insurance companies get to decide what is fair and reasonable care for your injury. If they feel you have treated too long or they feel your treatment is not justified, they cut off your treatment. Your physician went to medical school, but it certainly isn’t up to your treating physician to decide how much care you need; the insurance company will decide how much care they think you need.

Just remember, insurance companies are in the business of making money and trust me, you will get screwed along the way.