Friday, January 18, 2008

When Ethics Fails ...

We have the law.  And for that, I'm grateful.  I am a big fan of lawyers, being a sister to one.  

Sometimes, things break your way.  Sometimes, when someone doesn't want to "do the right thing," the law says, Uh, yeah, you don't have a choice.

The COBRA company went to their legal department to get permission to turn down our payment.  Their legal department said, Um, you don't have a choice.  A person has 45 days to opt in to COBRA and you don't get to circumvent that right.

And then the COBRA company had to call the benefits administrator at The Husband's last company and tell her, um, ma'am, you have to do this.  You have to process their application.  

It's not just the right thing to do, ma'am.  It's the law.

--

p.s. I said a prayer for the benefits administrator today.  How sad, to be so completely empty of human compassion that you enjoy the feeling of hurting someone more than the feeling of helping them!  I have no confidence that praying for someone actually affects them in any way.  But it affects me, and helps me get my soul on straight.  I said this prayer before we got the good news.  Would I still be carrying that feeling of compassion for her if we'd received discouraging news?  Ohhhh ... probably not.  Baby steps.

2 comments:

Earthbound Spirit said...

Hallelujah! When I read your post yesterday, I wondered about legal recourse. And, what a perfect lesson - there's a higher authority.

Comrade Kevin said...

In a capitalist system, often times the desire to make as much profit as possible encourages heartless behavior. I know this firsthand from dealing with insurance companies. They encourage their employees to deny claims so that the company itself can save money.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.