European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - May 14, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Do s and Don Asfor a better Bac the los Angeles times 7 understanding a specific set of Bac problems and figuring out How to compensate for them professional help but there is a generally agreed upon list of do s and Don to that might help says or. August a. White Iii in his Book your aching Back a doctor s guide to Relief-.,a among White s recommendations. A a do learn How and what to sit on. Everyone needs a chair with proper support,1 preferably with arms that maintains the natural the spine. To get in and out of a seat scoot to the Edge and use your legs Don t use your Back to lift your . A do learn the Art of getting bed safely Roll Over onto your Side and use your arms and legs not your Back to Puli yourself up a a a. A do take precautions while doing chores. When ironing or washing dishes put one Foo Hon a Stool or the base of a Cabinet to relieve pressure on the spine Kneel a Don t Bend a when making a bed. Bend at the Knees not the Waist when gardening or picking up objects. A -. A a do use a collapsible Luggage Carrier to haul. Groceries briefcases and suitcases. And ask for help. ,. When you need it. A Quot a a do exercise especially with movements that will. Strengthen your abdominal and leg Muscles. Low Impact exercise such As Walkings a fast Pace is Ideal As is. Swimming although most Back patients should avoid the Butterfly and breast stroke a a a Don t exercise without warming up. run. On a Treadmill or ride a stationary Bike vigorous Back. Activities should be avoided first thing in the morning. A because it is at that time that disks Are most filled wit fluid and especially prone to injury. A Don t do exercises that involve twisting and turning a Don t jog on hard surfaces if you Lack Good jogging shoes. A. A a a Don t sit or do anything else for extended periods. A a Don t hold packages or babies or anything else away from your body with your arms extended. A. A. A Don t carry your Wallet in a Back pocket. The bulk of. A Wallet can press on the sciatic nerve when you sit or ,. _ drive. A a a a h-3 a a a he Don t work standing on a hard surface if you can t a avoid doing so invest in shoes with a thick crepe sole Ora soft rubber sole. A a a a Don t give up correcting a Back problem takes time. Take care in doing chores especially lifting. Filo readers action Lineal car insurance and yearly rebates a Benoi the main expenses of driving a Carin. Germany is the yearly automobile insurance rates. Based on the German Mark to the Dollar rate a slight decrease in the Mark is Felt and any yearly rebate or Quot technical a a excess Quot is welcomed. A. V. A a a this letter addresses the use of Quot coded lists Quot by one a insurance company that a lot of department of defense personnel insure with Here in Germany. The All insurance company now known Asun at uses these coded lists. A a. A a a a. A rebate was declared for the year t989 by Aiu. The rebate amounted to $37 for a full year Jan 1, 1989 to Jan. 1, 1990 of liability coverage it if the. Individual had full coverage. A. A i had two policies that were in effect for the entire year one of the policies is still in effect the other was cancelled in february 1990 because the car was sold. The list sent out to the Agency contained my name. Twice but Only was provided. This Check was Tor the car that still had a policy in effect the. Second place my name appeared on the list was specially coded this code meant that the policy was not in effect in 1990,. And therefore even though i was due a rebate the Check was not provided and would have to be , the main office. I am not writing this letter about my second Check not being received but what i perceive As an abuse of a captive group of customers. By not sending out All checks the company has use of the Money during the period of time the Agency tries to notify the customer. When the customer is notified it. Still takes a period of time to get the Check and the company has use of the funds which Are drawing interest during. This time \. A representative of the Agency i went through stated that any Check that was sent to the Agency including those on the list with a special code and not picked up by the customer is returned to the company and would be added to the Quot rebate pot Quot if any for the following year i wonder How Many service members who have their. Cars stored and registered As non operational now because of military commitments have not been notified that there is a rebate Check awaiting pickup. There could be even More if you consider the number of family members that May not have been notified because the primary Contact number was the husband s or wife s duty phone. X. A a i was informed by the Agency that the company does not mail rebate checks. What does the Agency or a company do when a customer who was covered the entire previous year cancels a policy and rotates in May or deploys in september or october How does the. Customer know that the Agency does not just put Thea policy in the Quot dead file Quot and forget about them. A just As a general thought How Many insurance /. Agencies return checks to the companies As Quot undeliverable Quot because the service member cannot be contacted. It would be interesting to find out How Many rebates due service members were not delivered by the big three a Aiu Zurich Fortune. When multiplied by an average of $37 per policy it May be surprising it May also. to see what the North Atlantic treaty organization Tariff rules state on this. J a Charles d. Dockendorf Worms Germany v Edwin j. Miltenberger spokesman for american International underwriters Ai replies. American International underwriters Ai through. Unit the european insurance company is the largest insurer of american owned cars in Germany we have made Quot technical excess a payments for 11 of the last. 14 years. A a. In Germany an insurance company is allowed a limited profit on its liability insurance Premium. Anything in excess of this limit is termed a technical excess Quot this technical excess must be set aside and returned to customers in the form of technical excess monies and the interest they earn stay in a separate account which no longer belongs to the company. Any Money that returns to the account and that Money along with the additional interest is redistributed in subsequent years. A the Quot coded list Quot you refer to is a list of All eligible customers. Many customers do not understand that eligibility for a technical excess refund requires that they be insured during the entire Calendar year . Jan. 1. Through dec 31, and liability claim free for one or More years As determined by the company and publicly announced. A. Since the technical excess can Only be declared six. A months after the end of the previous Calendar year it is. Not unusual that Many individuals May have already left. Germany sold their car taken insurance with another company or simply stopped making insurance payments. A for this reason we Issue checks in three increments. A first checks Are immediately issued to eligible current. Customers. The list is Quot coded Quot with an asterisk next to the customer s name. This alerts the agent that a Check for. That customer accompanied the list. It also serves to. Verify the number of checks received by an agent. Second we ask the agent to review this list to see which insureds Are eligible. Third customers who for some exceptional reason were not picked up by the computer. A for example customers who had different policy a a. Numbers during the year but Are still insuring the same car Are also eligible. These customers can still receive a Check via a request through their local agent or directly to the Frankfurt main office. A a a we prefer to deliver checks through our agents in order that they May get the positive feedback from their customers last year our agents handed 10,263 checks Worth Over $470,000 to their customers. V / our method of distributing the technical excess checks has been very successful and. We generally receive fewer than 100 checks from our agents deemed undeliverable. A a Many agents attempt to get the forwarding address of their eligible customers before they leave the country in order to Forward their checks individuals who have been reassigned or Are planning to leave ther service should discuss this with their local agent. A. Regarding your personal situation we apologize for the delay of your second Check. If you still have not received it. Please Contact the Home office in Frankfurt. A to write us readers action line is the readers a court of last resort Quot striving to answer some of the questions about life overseas in a military environment or. Questions about policies and guidelines when other avenues for answers Are not readily available. If you have a question and Don t know where to turn for the a answer. Write to readers action line co the stars and stripes Apo 09211 -4211. All letters must be signed and preference will be Given to those seeking information of general interest to our readers. Page 16 the stars and stripes tuesday May 14, 1991
