>>This is with a good plan from Blue Cross. I think all the health insurance companies rely on the idea that most people won't fight.
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>The same goes for banks, various service providers, other insurances, politics... Even the ordinary rebate scams are calculated against the probability that some may fight, some may never again buy that brand, some will forget, some will buy exactly because the rebate (re-bait :) was promised... and the calculation showed profit.
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>Whenever I hear "tort reform", I remember such calculations. With laws bent the other way, the calculations will be thrown to the side of larger profits with lower risk of litigation costs, and voila, you'll get worse service, less reliable parts, less quality control, and more things you have to buy every year or two, that once lasted years. This is what you'll have, eventually.

One of my jobs was at Kraft, which at the time was Kraft-General Foods following the merger with GF (along with its recently acquired Oscar Mayer). One of the real head scratchers at the top of Kraft management was what really sold that box of mac and cheese, a.k.a. blue box. Kraft, along with every other grocery manufacturer, engaged in many forms of marketing. I was a manager on the Trade Deal Management team and got to learn a little about it. What we mainly learned was that we didn't know. Was it the reduced sale price last week? Was it advertising? If ads, where? -- coupons, TV, roto ads? Joe Durrett, who was the senior VP of marketing at the time, described it as "white on white on white." Trying to find even a little gray was the challenge.