State Farm to Families of Vaccine-Damaged Children: We Don’t Need Your Business

by Brian Shilhavy
Health Impact News Editor

Earlier this week, State Farm decided to drop an ad starring comedian Rob Schneider from its rotation due to his “anti-vaccine views” after a social media outcry. I wrote a commentary explaining that I was contacting my State Farm agents to let them know I was displeased with this action, and would be canceling my policies. I have been a customer of State Farm for over 10 years.

One of my two agents replied. His reply as to the “rationale” for stopping the ad with Rob Schneider was the same as what State Farm posted on their Facebook Page yesterday:

My agent stated in his email to me that this “seems like a reasonable business decision to me.”

Knowing that State Farm was losing customers over this, it didn’t seem too “reasonable” to me, so I asked him several questions during our email exchange:

Prior to pulling the ad, after the pro-vaccine lobby coordinated their attacks against Rob S., were agents like you getting complaints from customers and threatening to leave SF because of Rob S.’s views on vaccines?

I would be willing to bet they were not.

The pro-vaccine crowd is very well funded and organized, but they represent the pharmaceutical business, not the majority of consumers. How many pro-vaccine zealous consumers have you ever heard of or come across before?

The pro-vaccine safety crowd, however, is made up of a very significant segment of the society, particularly in the autism community. These parents of vaccine-damaged children (and yes, this is a non-debatable point because the U.S. government pays out millions of dollars in settlements to injuries and deaths due to vaccines – fact) are very active, angry, and passionate about the vaccine issues.

And SF just alienated all of them. Great “logic.”

In his reply to me, the agent did not address any of these questions. He simply complained that I was leaving after all these years, especially since State Farm paid out a claim on our home policy a few years back when burglars broke in and damaged the home.

So I again tried to use logic and reason, asking why State Farm would be willing to lose customers over this issue, and I asked him if he had read the article I posted here at Health Impact News and watched the short video Rob Schnieder had produced for the Canary Party. He replied: “Whether or not I watched your video or links are immaterial. You might be surprised about how much I know about this issue before these exchanges.”

So I received no answers to my questions, and my agent was not even interested in learning more about my views or why he was losing my business, because he felt he already knew the subject matter.

Now, not wanting to read the alternative story on vaccines is something I can understand. I see it all the time. Many people have been convinced that the issue of vaccine safety is a settled issue, and that anyone still wanting to discuss it is a quack, or ignorant.

But what about the company position in this matter? What could persuade them to take this action, knowing that they would lose business because of it? It doesn’t add up, and I wrote to my agent: “I am sure there is more behind this story than what is known publicly.”

What business can survive in a free market by alienating their customers?

Oh, that’s right, the pharmaceutical and medical business does. They are able to sell their products with or without public support, because the U.S. government is the major purchaser of their products, using your tax dollars to purchase those products, whether you approve or not. They don’t operate in a free market system.

But State Farm is not in the health insurance business, are they?

Not much, but according to a press release yesterday, they are about to jump in a big way.

Dina Overland of FierceHealthPayer, a health insurance publication, announced yesterday:

Blue Cross, State Farm partner to sell individual heath insurance plans

Turns out, State Farm wants to get into the Obamacare action and get some of the revenue coming in through Health Insurance Exchanges:

Health Care Services Corp. is pairing up with insurance giant State Farm to sell individual health plans both on and off the health insurance exchanges during the next open enrollment period.

HCSC is “committed to expanding access and offering health insurance options in every corner of every state in which we operate,” Jeff Tikkanen, president of retail markets for HCSC, said in a statement. “State Farm’s presence is both broad and deep in these states and, as a result, we will have the single largest network of dedicated insurance professionals resident in their communities.” (Source.)

Could it be that industry insiders put pressure on State Farm to remove Rob Schneider as one of the spokespersons in order get in on the health insurance action?

I don’t know.

But it is clear that State Farm is willing to lose the business of the families who are suffering with vaccine-damaged children. The majority of these families cannot be compensated by the government for these injuires due to vaccines, because the government continues to take the position that vaccines are safe and not responsible for the majority of vaccine damaged claims filed in the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. There is a trust fund which sets aside funds (from your tax dollars) to pay out damages due to vaccine injuries, but it pays out far less than it receives in revenues. So now that trust fund has grown to $3.5 BILLION. Where is that money being used??

These are facts that most Americans are not even aware of, and Rob Schneider is one of the few who has donated his own time to produce a video exposing it.

Ironically, now that State Farm will be participating in Health Exchanges, they could be receiving federal funding for healthcare services from federal funds that were supposed to be set aside to pay for injuries to vaccine-damaged families.

Is this how a “good neighbor” acts?

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