I’ve been hearing a lot of hoopla from doctors about malpractice insurance and how the government needs to step in and do something about the high rates.  Now, I’ve had several types of insurance in my personal life for my home, health, cars and life, as well as insurance for my construction company.  Insurance has been going up across the board for years, and you have to adapt.

I’ve been working construction since the 1970’s, and back then insurance and safety were practically second thoughts.  The thing is that over time, more accidents happen, so the rates go up and everybody, including the insurance companies, learns a little bit about how much accidents cost everybody.

For my construction company, it’s not even just the insurance rates that cost more.  Because of the prospect of higher rates, we have to invest more money in accident prevention.  For instance, we used to use these giant rock screens and to move them, we had to load them onto trailers and secure them with whatever chains and hooks we had lying around and then tow it with a bulldozer or truck.  Needless to say, there are all kinds of safety risks involved with a bunch of guys chaining down a two ton machine to a trailer that is not made for that specific purpose and then towing it across town, so to get lower insurance rates, I had to invest in a portable screening machine that had special safety equipment and company guarantees.

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