I admit it – I am annoyed. It is only money, but even so I am annoyed.
Just received the quotation for renewal of my automobile insurance policy – 20% increase, despite many years of no claims.
Digging into the details. actually insuring my vehicles costs a mere $300. However, I am also required by governmental fiat to have insurance against the other people who fail to purchase insurance – so called “Uninsured/Underinsured Motorists”, which cost $783 – two and a half times what it costs for my own insurance!
The only way to regard this $783 is as an unjustifiable fine on a law-abiding citizen because our worthless rulers refuse to enforce their own laws requiring all motorists to carry insurance. It is well-understood that the authorities will never prosecute an illegal alien for driving without insurance, which results in actual citizens claiming the same privilege.
And then there is house insurance, which is also going up significantly because our worthless rulers refuse to practice sensible forest management in the public lands that they supposedly care for on our behalf – thus resulting in massive destruction from avoidable forest fires.
Tell me why any citizens should be prepared to go to war to defend such a useless ruling class?
Forget going to war. For most of us, merely trying to live here is like an endless fall into a bottomless pit (of complete despair). Soon, I fear the unravelling will lead to lights, water, fuel and food out - and all which inevitably follows. Maybe the future is less grim (or at least shorter) if we provoke Russia sufficiently.
“We were able to defraud you and thereby take power. Aren’t you happy that such competent leadership is here to protect you from the other fraud artists around the world? Now bare your neck. Time to feed.”
I think the insurance industry is the root of all evil. Third party payments are the reason for astronomical healthcare costs, f’rinstance. Look what happened under B. Hussein. The industry lobbied HARD for 2 things: the individual mandate, and no public option. They got ‘em. Can you imagine: a law which says everyone HAS to buy your product—oh and with no cap on what you can charge! Every industry’s dream.
And homeowners’ insurance? IF you ever have to make a big claim, the company gets most of it back by raising your premium the next year, under the threat of refusing to insure you at all!
But here’s the biggest scam: “claims made” “insurance” .I put both of those terms in “ “ because the industry actually boasts that with claims-made, “you aren’t actually buying coverage, just renting it!” It only covers claims asserted while your policy is in effect! Brilliant! ( oh and they won’t cover an occurrence before your policy went into effect if you haven’t disclosed it to them on your application—in which case they’ll probably exclude that incident, or, of course, factor it into the premium.) So, for any given one yer term, the co could charge you, say, $1M as the premium. The statute of limitations on torts is 2 years, so it’s unlikely you’ll be sued for an occurrence DURING that one year term. Then, they can cancel the policy and keep the million dollar premium!
Get it? A million dollars paid to assume virtually NO risk of loss!
But the industry is so big, employs so many people. How could we ever get rid of it?
Undoubtedly there are abuses. But the root of all evil is more insidious – our worthless Political Class.
Where the insurance industry gets special deals, they do it in the same way as in other industries – by buying politicians and bureaucrats. This is what we call “our democracy”.
At its root, everyone who buys insurance is agreeing to share in the unavoidable losses in that sector, instead of taking the risk that they will be one of the unlucky ones who suffers a full personal loss. My beef is that government is increasing the losses in sectors such as home insurance and vehicle insurance by failing to do its job. Those of us who (foolishly?) go along with the system end up paying more for insurance because real losses do indeed go up – thanks to Political Class failures.
One problem in health care is that more people need to be on catastrophic insurance plans. In fact that is the original definition of insurance: protection in case of catastrophe.
Another problem is the lack of price transparency.
If we eliminate the insurance industry what is the alternative?
Yes, indeed. One insures against the risk of a costly loss, not as a means of shifting predictable and ordinary expenses to someone else. Of course, the blame for this, too, is our incompetent governance - at the hands of sociopath politicians (sorry to use redundant words).
Insurance is great for unlikely, catastrophic losses.
That doesn’t include most of the health care paid by insurance, that is routine and trivial. Out of sight and out of mind, costs have exploded to line the pockets of profiteers and subsidize care for societal parasites.
BTW, today, I received notice of my Part D Medicare prescription premium for 2025. It jumped from $40 to $65 a month! - a mere 62.5% increase in one year. I will be having a talk with my pharmacist. It may be a wash to self-insure at that price, especially since the coverage is not very good; I’m still paying about 60% of the drug costs as copays & deductibles. Sure glad inflation has been controlled by Harris. Her TV and radio ads tell us how she is going to decrease the cost of everything. Not a single breath on just how she will do it (and why she hasn’t done so while already in power…
The dominant part of the cost of my policy is Bodily Injury Liability (accounting for about 50% of the premium). Collision & Comprehensive make up another 20%. Property Damage Liability is ~10%. Uninsured Motorist is only 15%. Admittedly, it’s annoying to have to subsidize those scofflaws but it’s not a huge issue.
My recollection is that it has always been thus: uninsured/underinsured coverage was a relatively minor part of the premium.
Regarding uninsured, unlicensed, illegal alien drivers that impact our insurance premiums:
that is the price we Americans pay for not securing our election system, and allowing a criminal class to govern.