No Money, No Problems (AKA Larry Taylor STILL Hates You – Unless You’re an Insurance Company

A funny thing happens in the Texas Legislature. You see, being in the Texas legislature doesn’t pay well. You make about $30k a session. This breaks down into a $7,200/year salary, and about $26k per 140 day session in a per diem commission. The Texas Congress is only in session for about 140 days every couple of years. The 85^th Legislature is currently in session now and will continue until about May 29, 2017.

So what do you do? $30k is not insignificant, but if you’re a family of four, $30k gets you just north of the poverty line.

Simplified 2016 FPL Guidelines for the 48 Contiguous States and DC (not Alaska and Hawaii). You’ll use these guidelines for 2017 cost assistance and for taxes filed April 15, 2018

So what’s a Legislator to do? They have to get another gig! Here’s a snapshot of what the breakdown by general profession of the Legislators looked like in 2013.

Lots of business, lawyers (expected). Engineering, Oil, Doctors, and Educators. A pretty good spread right? I mean, even a pastor and a retired guy.

If you look about 7 down from the top you see “INSURANCE.” In 2013, there were 10 Insurance salespeople in the Texas State Legislature. I’ll withhold my general thoughts on the profession for now and focus on the fact that those people are making a living just like everyone else.

One of those insurance salespeople, is your friend and mine – one, Texas Senator Larry Taylor (R-TX11). That’s right.  Larry Taylor owns an Insurance company called Truman Taylor Insurance Agency, Inc. – where Insurance [is] “Taylor Made”; clever, I have to admit.

Credit: Truman Taylor Insurance, http://www.trumantaylorinsurance.com

Senator Taylor’s insurance company specializes in Life and Health Insurance, Personal Lines (basically Home, Fire, Storm insurance and the like), Commercial stuff. Just a guy trying to make a living.

So a little history. In 2003, then House Representative Taylor voted for sending a bill to the people of the State of Texas that would be a referendum on Texas’s Tort Reform statutes. This came in the wake of some kind of Asbestos mold scam and also, an elderly lady had just spilled coffee on herself and sued McDonald’s for a lot of money (not in Texas but we needed a muse). Tort Reform was Texas’s answer to Asbestos, frivolous lawsuits all kinds of bad things that were hurting the people of Texas.

Tort Reform was pitched as a way to curb frivolous lawsuits. These frivolous lawsuits, as they pertained to medical situations, were causing doctors’ malpractice insurance to go up, so much so that the doctors were ordering extra procedures to cover their behinds and hopefully curtail the suits. These extra procedures caused medical costs to spiral out of control. Tort Reform would fix ALLLLL of that. It would stop frivolous lawsuits, which would stop the extraneous tests, which would curtail the need for superfluous data, which would lower the general cost of medical procedures, which would eventually relieve the burden on doctors’ pockets as malpractice insurance relaxed, which would eventually trickle down to cheaper medical care for the citizens of Texas.

It was great – I remember voting for Tort Reform myself. Proposition 12 passed the referendum, because 750,000 people voted against their better interests while simultaneously sacrificing their 7^th Amendment Constitutional right to a trial.

Credit: ballotpedia.org

Then Governor Rick Perry signed the Tort Reform Bill and there was much rejoicing.

Rick Perry signs tort reform bill – shakes hands with litigation lawyer Mike Gallagher (ironically maybe) wagging his finger at him.

Credit: https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2014/9/30/justice-undone-torn-reform-gone-too-far-october-2014

So what really happens with tort reform? Tort reform as it actually worked didn’t really do anything for medical costs in Texas…if anything those costs have increased. One thing it did do, is reduce the number of cases tried and settlements made in general. The thing is, tort reform doesn’t just stop frivolous lawsuits, it is meant to just – stop lawsuits. It doesn’t matter if a case has merit or not, proponents just don’t want businesses or doctors on the hook for any liability. So you, as a citizen, have no recourse in the event that something terrible happens.

Let’s look, specifically, at the rare possibility that a doctor really messes you up, so we’re talking malpractice now.

Tort reform puts a cap on damages that can be awarded on malpractice suits. The constituents of these damages are broken down into two components. The first component is Economic damages. These are basically, quantifiable amounts of money: lost wages, medical bills, etc. These economic damages have no cap. The second component is Non-economic damages. Non-economic damages are pain and suffering type stuff. This cap is set at $250,000. The real kick in the pants is that a doctor’s insurance company also has the power to just pay out the maximum ceiling of the insurance policy for that specific doctor. These maximum ceilings for payouts have a minimum requirement that varies based on a doctor’s scope of practice – but for some, that minimum ceiling is set at $200,000. So even if you are awarded $10,000,000 or your medical bills alone exceed $200,000, you’re simply out of luck. The insurance company can just say, “Nope, the policy is only $200k, that’s all we’ll pay out.” The other kick in the pants comes from the Economic damages side. Say you’re retired or not working or too young to work. A constituent of the economic damages reward is wages. If you have no wages, sorry. So, when it comes to, older people and children, they have very little opportunity for building up the requisite damages to warrant a case with a lawyer.

It’s a sticky situation. Also part of Prop 12 was a way of preventing lawyers from being paid up front in the event of a malpractice suit. So the lawyers have to front all the costs and fees before even going to trial or being awarded a settlement. So lawyers have to proceed with doing all of this work with the risk of losing the case and never getting their fees or costs covered.

So what happens? Lawyers actually just stop taking cases. The fees and costs for the lawyers are supposed to be covered by their take as a percentage of the awards in these cases. If a case doesn’t pose a big enough value, lawyers won’t take the case because it’s not worth the time – regardless of the merit of the case.

Take the case of the DiLeo family. In 2005, they were residents of Louisiana vacationing in Florida. Stephen and Cassy DiLeo had a son named Johnathan who joined them on the vacation. Johnathan was 16 and healthy. One day during that vacation, Johnathan became very ill for no apparent reason. They rushed their son to a hospital where a doctor ordered a CT scan that revealed a tumor the size of a ping-pong ball in the pineal region of the boy’s brain. The doctors in Florida determined that the tumor was inoperable at the time. The family drove home back to Louisiana. Once there, they elected for chemo in order to shrink the tumor and it worked! This reduction in size gave the family an opportunity to perform an operation to remove the tumor, but they would have to take their child to a hospital in Texas. Once there, they met a neurosurgeon who was supremely confident that he could surgically remove the tumor. They elected to go on with the surgery and a few days later Johnathan seemed to be on the mend. Johnathan had a drain installed to drain fluid off his brain while everything healed and once this was removed, Johnathan was able to respond and interact. All seemed well. However, almost three weeks later, Johnathan’s headaches returned and his scalp began to visibly stretch. The DiLeos went back to the hospital for a CT scan that revealed there was a drastic increase in his intracranial fluid. The original doctor was informed of this at the time, but took no action. Johnathan’s condition rapidly deteriorated. Johnathan’s surgeon stopped by to see him for a couple of minutes then left. Johnathan’s status continued to precipitously deteriorate after the doctor left and between 5 PM and 11PM the hospital placed multiple emergency calls to the surgeon that went unanswered until the doctor finally showed around 11PM. When asked where the doctor was, he [the doctor] told the DiLeos he was having dinner with his family. The surgeon determined that surgery was needed immediately but it was too late, and Johnathan passed away at 3am the next day.

Because this procedure was performed in Texas, that doctor, who decided to go to dinner with his family instead of save a boy’s life, poses no risk for litigation because that is considered an “error in medical judgement” and a doctor that makes a bad call that is considered as such, is protected by Prop 12. Prop 12 requires lawsuits to satisfy a burden of proof for negligence on account of the doctor, and that is almost impossible except in extreme cases.

If you want all of the details or if you want to really get mad the full article is located at: https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2014/9/30/justice-undone-torn-reform-gone-too-far-october-2014

So there is how the last round of tort reform went; sweeping protections for Doctors and insurance companies that only hurt the citizens that need the justice system. Now, not only are doctors not responsible for the results of care for their patients when things go wrong, but if anything goes awry (like a child dies), doctors have no responsibility to cover damages because of protections afforded to them under the new Tort Reform amendment.

Not only do insurance companies get to pay for fewer procedures (as doctors have no fear of repercussions and thereby order fewer procedures), malpractice insurers don’t have to worry about paying suits that never materialize. Proposition 12 Tort Reform has effectively stripped Texans of their right to a trial. If you ever need it, the justice system will undoubtedly fail you.

So that’s the past. The present is this:

Senator Taylor’s top 10 donors, breakdown as follows:

#1, Texans for Lawsuit Reform gave over $1MM. They are specifically geared toward removing any litigation liability for businesses. If you look closely, there’s four insurance companies in there as well. 4. Independent Insurance Agents of Texas, Farmers, Allstate, USAA – and 5 if you count some guy named “Larry Taylor”.  If you dig deeper you’ll also find Texas Medical Association, Liberty Mutual, the Texas Beer Alliance (not relevant but interesting). You’ll even find Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas. The Texas Association of Health Underwriters. I mean, the list goes on and on.

This is important because – they’re doing it again:

http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/news/2017/02/13/texas-lawmakers-file-bill-that-takes-aim-at.html

Senate Bill 10 (SB10) and House Bill 1774 (HB1774) are both working their way through the Texas State Legislature right now…in this session. And Larry Taylor along with Gov. Greg Abbott introduced it – SB10 anyway.

Larry Taylor wants to make it harder for the citizens of Texas to get their insurance claims paid out now after a storm.

It’s the same. Damn. Thing, As in 2003. Proponents are saying that hailstorm insurance claims are OUT OF CONTROL and that if this insurance reform is passed it will bring down insurance rates.

But the thing is, it won’t. Insurance is based on statistics. Insurance companies gamble on the fact that disasters won’t happen. That’s why Hurricane and windstorm insurance is higher in Galveston County than it is in other counties not next to a huge hurricane production factory. Those premiums are set so that when there is a payout required, you’ve paid enough in that what is paid out is a zero balance or even slanted in favor of the insurance company.

All this bill will do is make it 1) easier for Insurance companies to not payout what they’re supposed to, and 2) make it harder for citizens to take insurance companies to courts to sue for their proper payments. It’s the same thing. Happening again. But this time, it’s likely not required to go to a statewide vote.

Think about it, why else would an insurance agent-Senator propose legislation that restricts a client’s ability to get their rightful payout from an insurance claim? Because being a senator only pays out $30,000 every other year. Not having to fulfill your end of the bargain when selling insurance, well, that’s likely priceless.

But just remember, if you’re in need of insurance – I know a guy.

Credit: Truman Taylor Insurance, http://www.trumantaylorinsurance.com

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If you wish to contact Senator Taylor, you can be ignored by emailing (as I have several times):

Larry@larrytaylor.com

Or go through this black hole:

http://www.senate.texas.gov/member.php?d=11 (click “EMAIL YOUR SENATOR”)

You can also call:

Office Information

Capitol Address

The Honorable Larry Taylor

P.O. Box 12068

Capitol Station

Austin, TX 78711

(512) 463-0111 (TEL)

District Address

6117 Broadway, Suite 122

Pearland, TX 77581

(281) 485-9800 (TEL)

(281) 485-9804 (FAX)

District Address

174 Calder Road, Suite 151

League City, TX 77573

(281) 332-0003 (TEL)

(281) 332-0036 (FAX)

Larry Taylor Hates You

This started a while back – but maybe we’ll get into that later. It has now culminated with true bravery on the part of Senator Larry Taylor, R-Tx11.

You see, Sen. Taylor introduced Senate Bill 3 (https://legiscan.com/TX/bill/SB3/2017). Senate Bill 3 is the school choice BS being pitched as a boon for Texas Education because you will have fewer students per school thereby increasing the amount of $$ able to spent per student. Sounds great.

Except when you look at how they’re going to do it which involves essentially giving vouchers to Mom and Dad to pay for Private School (lets stop with the Charter School label – it’s private). These vouchers relieve the burden, but don’t cover the full cost. So Mom and Dad are able to say they send their kid to private school – unless they can’t afford it anyway; even with a subsidy.

Those vouchers won’t cover the full cost of that Private school. So Mom and Dad are now on the hook to pay or that spot in a private school goes to someone else who then has the option of taking it or not, and that “spot” moves down the line to someone who can afford to go to private school. Eventually that spot can fall to someone who can afford private school without the voucher. That Mom and Dad now send that kid to private school they can already afford and pocket the voucher.

So if you look closely, what Texas (read: Senator Larry Taylor) has done, is taken money out of the pot for Texas Public Schools, changed it into a voucher, and created a subsidy for Private School. Texas now wants to subsidize private school.

Now, I will not deny, there will be people that probably take this voucher, and use it to get over that hump, and send their kid to a good, private school. But those are the lucky ones. There will be those to stretch and skimp on every dollar to send their kid to the best schools they possibly can. And then there will be those who simply can’t. They simply can’t make ends meet. They’ll send their kid to a public school that now has less money to spend, because a portion of that money for that child has be repackaged, the turd has been shined up, and FedEx’d off to Private School.

Anyway, take a look. It’s another scam from those clueless few in Austin akin to the Tort Reform lie of 2003. If you want a piece of history there, have a bit on this little article:

https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2014/9/30/justice-undone-torn-reform-gone-too-far-october-2014

Don’t want to read it? Basically Tort Reform in Texas allows a situation for a Dr. to kill a child because he was at dinner with his family, with no available recourse for the family. Guess who voted for tort reform – your friend and mine, Senator Larry Taylor. He’s at it again.

I sent a letter to Sen. Taylor a while back – no response…if this is any indication though, I’ll not hold my breath.

 

If you’re interested, here’s the letter:

Senator Taylor,

I understand you recently introduced SB3. I feel this is a mistake.

As a constituent of yours and new father of an 21 month old, I believe your bill will do nothing but restrict our choices moving forward. This bill will take money from the Public School system and use that money to subsidize tuition for Private Schools – with tuition my family won’t be able to afford anyway.

You’re effectively making school cheaper for rich people and less effective for middle and lower class families.

This bill and School Choice as a whole is being pitched as a boon for the school system much the same way as the 2003 Tort Reform amendment was pitched as a savior for medical bills in the state of Texas. In reality, all Tort Reform did was insulate Doctors and insurance companies from ANY AND ALL LITIGATION RISK regardless of the merit of a case. In essence, you’ve protected Doctors and stripped citizens of their 7^th Amendment right to a trial.

History is repeating itself.

This school choice bill will take money from public schools – schools beholden to standards by elected officials and therby accountable to the people who elect those officials – and reallocate that to what are essentially private businesses accountable to NO ONE other than their bottom line and artificially inflated test scores.

In addition to not being accountable, these schools have the option of accepting, rejecting, expelling, or keeping students they so deem “a fit” for their needs. This bill effectively sets up difficult students (or students with special needs, or students who might think differently, or students who test poorly but are otherwise fine) for expulsion right around the time of state regulated tests in order to protect the school from looking bad on paper. This disregard will likely happen to a minority of students, but this is not fair to those few students.

This bill will effectively set the education course for decades. These decades will be filled with a monolithic landscape of easy to educate students who can hardly think outside the box because they’re never exposed to anyone who thinks differently than themselves (as those different thinkers -read: “difficult students” -) would likely be expelled from a school system no longer required to educate them.

As a member of the Education committee, and introducer of this bill, I’m certain requesting a “No” vote on this issue will not be possible. So you’ve likely lost my vote for the rest of time, but I implore you to amend your bill to make any and all schools receiving ANY amount of tax payer money accountable to the same standards (if not higher standards) than we currently see in our school systems.

Also, it’s important to empower teachers. As the son of two teachers, I had a front row seat to the daily frustration of the crushing yoke of regulation. You’re not allowing teachers to teach. Teachers teach for a “test” – not life. This is mistake. Empower teachers and allow them to actually teach children and you will see improvement in both teacher performance and the education of our children as a whole – not just those that can afford it.

One thing I will pledge to you is if a bill is introduced (any bill -more taxes, different taxes, higher taxes, federal funding allocation, ANYTHING(!)) that will genuinely better fund school systems, I will support you and that initiative. Otherwise, you’re just pigeonholing the very nature of out of the box thinking that will propel this country to greatness again.

Sincerely,

Matt Priesmeyer

So, that’s it. What happens when you push back on your representative in Texas (the 11TH District anyway) – silence. And in fact, more than silence. I can’t even see what’s going on with ol’ Lar Bear any more.

True Bravery.