This fact isn't widely known outside of Cherokee linguistic circles, but the name "Zach Wamp" derives from the Cherokee term "Zachie Wampus," which appears in Sequoyah's dictionary with the meaning "crazed ignorant white man."

Hah. We knew it. Time to pay the piper.

On the other hand, here's our story.

We always had pretty good insurance through work up until 1995 when we quit our jobs to start a company. During that time on the job, we only ever filed one claim between us (about $1000 for an MRI when I had a herniated disk, and let me tell you the pain is right up there with child birth, or so I'm told).

Then we had to get our own insurance. We were living in Florida, where state law requires insurance companies to write you an individual policy. We were able to get a private family coverage policy for the two of us (no kids) at about $700 per month. We had a $5000 deductible each.

Then we moved to Tennessee. About a year after moving here, our insurance company decided to get out of the health insurance business and sold all their policies to another company. The other company decided to drop us with no explanation. I'm sure it had to do with a pre-existing condition of mine, but they refused to say why.

In Tennessee, insurance companies aren't required to write anyone a policy if they don't want to. We tried all the usual suspects and were turned down. I even called TennCare to see if they had something I could pay some outrageous premium for, but we made way too much money to qualify. I asked the guy what we were supposed to do, and he just laughed.

Then we incorporated and found out state law requires insurance companies to write group policies to businesses, just not to individuals. My dad suggested I check with the Farm Bureau (!), and we were able to get a pretty good BCBS group plan for our two full-time employees (me & the Mrs.) for about $500 month total for both. It, too, has high deductible $5000 each. And we've never had dental, vision, or prescription drug coverage on any policy.

So we have never filed a claim on either policy that we've had and have basically paid everything out of pocket for 15 years. I have two doctor visits per year, one for full physical that normally costs $600 and a second follow up that is about $200 but my doctor gives a 40% discount for cash self-pay. We've been pretty lucky to not get too sick or injured or need many expensive tests or prescriptions.

I figured up how much I've paid into the "system" over the years and it totals about $108,000. The net present value to the insurance companies is about $186,000 (at a modest 2.5% return, which was much higher in the nineties but we'll use that for a conservative average), and they have never paid out a single penny in claims.

Without this bill, I'm sure they would drop us like a bad habit the first time we filed a claim, or jack up our premiums by about 3X. Now if we can avoid trouble for six more months we'll at least be protected from that. If we can keep our business going for four more years we'll be able to shop around in an exchange (assuming Tennessee doesn't opt out) if our rates go up or we decide to sell the business.

If we can hold on ten more years we will enter the sweet embrace of Medicare, and all will be good. Unless you youngsters screw it up. So please don't screw it up. Or Social Security.