No More Bribes for the Insurance Commissioner!
By Adam Pedesclaux
The insurance rates in Louisiana are outrageous. Car and home insurance rates are nearly the highest in the country, and if you live in New Orleans, you also need flood insurance. If you’re poor or oppressed, you are punished doubly, since nearly all high elevation land is populated by rich people, a feature of the city established during the violent conquering and settling of the city landscape. Just as the landscape of New Orleans reflects the oppressive rule of the capitalists, the insurance rates also reflect their tight grip on power.
Before James Donelon (R), the latest politician to take the seat of Insurance Commissioner in Louisiana, there were three politicians: Doug Green (D), Jim Brown (D), J. Robert Wooley (D) all of whom went to prison for taking bribes/money laundering. Given that the Insurance Commissioner controls insurance rates and allows/bars insurance companies from operating in Louisiana, whoever serves in this position sits as the gatekeeper to insurance companies. So that the insurance companies can suck as much out of Louisiana ratepayers as possible, they keep plenty of cash on hand to “grease the palms” of the commissioner.
Whether or not Donelon has taken illegal bribes has yet to be revealed. That he has accepted more than $680,000 in legal bribes—aka campaign donations—from insurance companies and agents since 2015 ought to be a scandal.
Donelon, who hates workers, has even had the guts to say that car insurance rates are so high because of all the uninsured/underinsured drivers. But the lies don’t add up: nationwide, Louisiana ranks twentieth for the number of uninsured drivers, and yet we have the second highest rates in the country. How could working people even afford to have more insurance when the ruling class steals from of us left and right?
Insurance rates do not fall out of the sky. They are not “mathematically determined” nor are they set by any other scientific means. The reason so much of our hard-earned money is stolen each month is because the capitalist owned media conceal the true nature of the capitalist government. The news media would have us believe that Santa or the Easter Bunny sets these rates as much as they avoid the facts of this important issue.
The people ought to have the final say in how prices are set, but we workers have to fight for better conditions or we will continue to be taken advantage of. No more closed door negotiations and off-shore bank accounts! No more politicians in the pockets of the insurance companies! All power to the people!