The insurance industry has worked hard to implement self-serving concepts such as 10 and 10 into the mainstream and, for the most part, it has worked. Honest, hard working general and specialty contractors who know their trade and put in a hard day's work are tired at the end of their day and do not want to battle with the insurance industry for their pay. The insurance industry is well aware that most contractors do not understand true job costs and that many of these contractors do not have the time, interest, or legal savvy to battle with the insurance industry so they settle for what the insurance industry offers... 10% overhead and 10% profit; aka 10 and 10.

Simply stated, the concept of 10 and 10 is the self-serving, fascist, brainchild of the insurance industry that serves only to limit the earned profits of blue collar contractors so that the insurance company can continue to reap record profits... nothing more, nothing less.

10% overhead and 10% profit is NEITHER American policy NOR American case law. The United States, by its own constitutionally protected and fundamental design, cannot implement profit limiting laws. It can, however, implement laws preventing price gouging, price fixing, predatory pricing, and other unfair trade practices, but our Capitalist, free market society cannot cap profits. Technically, even the obscene and excessive profits that many in the insurance industry agreed to return to its customers were profits they were entitled to under the rules of the US marketplace. The only reason the insurance industry agreed to return their excessive profits to their customers was to save face in the eyes of the average US citizen. The average US citizen is currently struggling financially and the insurance industry PR firms understand that it is VERY difficult for the fat cats at the insurance industry to continue to cry poverty and claim they need governmental assistance - especially during a depression - when the US citizen learns of their excessive profits; therefore, such excessive profits are returned (albeit slowly and over time) for marketing benefits and NOTHING else.

Some of the tenants of 10 and 10 are absurd. For example, insurance adjusters like to deny 10 and 10 on the basis that a specialty contractor only has one trade whereas a general contractor, typically, has at least three. This asinine line of thinking infers that the work of a general contractor is more important or valuable then the work of a specialty contractor. Extrapolating this line of "thinking" to its logical conclusion we can conclude that the insurance industry must value the work of a general practitioner medical doctor ("MD") over the work of a specialist MD. Obviously the general practitioner MD does a lot more for the patient and is, therefore, entitled to more overhead and profit on their bill than the lowly specialist MD who only did one specific and specialized treatment for the patient. Such supposition revels the insurance industries clear and blatant disregard for the specialist's education, equipment, and experience that qualifies the specialist as a specialist. ANY rational and unbiased person would certainly agree that this line of "reasoning" is fundamentally flawed but this is the EXACT "reasoning" the insurance industry inflicts upon hard working, blue collar, specialty contractors.

Both sets of contractors - general and specialty - deserve fair compensation for their honest hard work but not in the eyes of the greedy and excessive profit mongering insurance industry. In order to reap such record and excessive profits, the insurance industry has to confuse the issue with smoke and mirrors, such as 10 and 10, and then find enough "go with the flow" contractors to implement this ridiculous concept amongst their peers. Given enough time, and enough industry marketing showing the benefits of 10 and 10, such self serving policies embed themselves in "common knowledge" and create the illusion, in the eyes of those contractors who accepted the concept and all new contractors, that such nonsense is law or the ways things are done so such contractors will blindly go with the concept and forego the fair and reasonable profit they rightly deserve and have earned.

Other ways to implement and enforce such un-American and fascist policies is to create a fear base from which those who are subject to such fear base are wholly controlled and will never rebel - enter the Preferred Vendor List ("PVL"). The PVL is an industry controlled carrot that new and hungry contractors seek to achieve in order to land recurring business with the insurance industry. Achievement of such a dubious distinction trains the contractor how to bill in such a way that the insurance industry will approve the bill without delay and will continue to work with this "Preferred Vendor." Such Preferred Vendor soon find themselves in dire economic straights with just enough profit to eat and maintain their Preferred Indentured Servitude for as long as they can physically work.

The author of this article likes to write intelligent and fact based articles that have sources cited and available should any one or any entity request proof. For those who are wondering the validity of the points presented herein, consider this... not one of the author's Internet searches for "10 and 10" - and a gaggle of related searches - brought up anything showing ANY relation of 10 and 10 in US law - despite the smoke and mirrors marketing and mind control the insurance industry strives hard to embed into the consciousness of the contractor and enforce through its bad faith and excessive profit mongering efforts. Plenty of sites came up debating the usage and reliance upon the mythological policy of 10 and 10 but nothing else. Those pro 10 and 10 admitted their position on the PVL - with many expressing reasonable concerns about their profitability and their headaches in dealing with cut rate pricing and the continued hoops the controlling insurance industry levies upon them - and those opposed discussed the profit system they use to keep their business interests afloat and profitable.

In the United States Capitalistic free market system, profit is the reason to be in business. Profit is not a bad word or concept and the insurance industry certainly enjoys their record and excessive profits at the expense of honest, hard working, blue collar contractors who deserve a fair and reasonable return on their investment. Profit limitations are anti-Capitalist. The insurance industry is NOT a governmental body and they cannot lawfully implement its binding and self serving law upon a free society. The contractor is free to charge whatever overhead and profit they deem fair and necessary on their bill to cover their unique and independent business model and expenses.

Now you know the truth. It's your money... it's your choice. Choose wisely.