EthicsBite™

It is said that great events can test one’s character. This week’s storm has provided – and will continue to provide – a test of our national ethics. So far we are doing well. Professional ethics at its best has come to the fore in the past few days:

• The actions of the NYU Langone Medical Center – doctors, nurses, staff and administrators – in reacting to the loss of power was an effort they can always be proud of. Saving the lives of young babies who were dependent upon respirators that no longer functioned; removing their patients down the dark stairwells from many floors up; and maintaining throughout a sense of order and calm was ethical professional behavior at its best.
• The New York Fire Department, the people who never say “we can’t,” fought a raging fire in Queens at the edge of the incoming ocean in the midst of the storm.
• The brave helicopter pilots and rescuers from the Coast Guard saved all but two of the crew of the Bounty, plucking them one by one from the massive waves in the Atlantic.

These and untold others are the many heroes we have among us. People who risked their lives to save others.

Now we have another test that will soon be upon us – a test of corporate and political ethics. The one that comes when ordinary citizens file their insurance claims.

We have some good friends who lost their home to Hurricane Katrina years ago. They were lucky enough to be out of town at the time; neighbors who stayed were never seen again. When they were able to return there was nothing left but a handful of personal items and a lot of memories. A total loss.

Many years later they were still fighting the insurance company who had their policy. Read the fine print. Disaster is tricky. Was their home destroyed by flooding? Or was it the wind? Or was it the storm surge? No camera was there to record what happened. No neighbor could serve as an eye witness. You think you have insurance… but you don’t.

Sandy is a huge insurance industry event. Enormous. My bet is that some in the industry will do everything they can to forestall and avoid paying claims. Call me a cynic, but there is a history. We will see. And regardless of who wins on Tuesday, I don’t expect any substantive new legislation that oversees the writing of the fine print to eliminate the question marks and loopholes for future natural disaster victims.

Meantime, kudos go to the airline industry. They have fine print too, but they waived the $150 change fees for people who had to cancel or desired to cancel their travel. The airlines lost money on this one and their financial health is not nearly as strong as the insurers. The airlines lead the way.