I have rarely had insurance in my life. I rarely had auto insurance. Why is it irresponsible for me to drive without it? If I hit someone, I will pay for their damage or they can sue me. If I hit somebody drunk (I don’t do that) the insurance company won’t pay for the accident. If I am someone of adequate means, I should (and am) responsible for what happens to me.
HEALTH INSURANCE is pure BS. I have never had health insurance in my life. If I get a cold or some minor illness or hurt, I go to the doctor and pay it myself. If I was an insurance carrier and came down with a debilitating illness, the insurance company would drop me like a stone.
Whats up with DEDUCTABLES? If I need to make a claim, I still have to pay from my own pocket? So why in the hell am I giving it to them in the first place?
When hurricane Andrew hit Florida many years ago, one positive thing came from it. A lot of insurance brokers and agents went broke. That was wonderful. It is nice to see the thieves pay their victims.
Insurance companies pray on people’s fear. Your scared, we will help you. Give us your money and we will give you peace. Insurance companies do nothing but take your money and deny all claims.
So we may assume that if you get cancer, you won’t be accepting any tax-funded Medicare money to pay for your treatment? That you’ll slink off into the forest and die on your own? People do get cancer, you know. It’s not just made up, like the moon landing.
Auto insurance - you’re going to pay, are you? Do you know what the highest ever auto insurance claim was? Neither do I. But I do know that there was an accident in the UK a few years back that is currently standing at about £50 million - about 75 million fucking dollars. You have that kind of money, do you? No? Well then I guess you need some fucking insurance, you selfish prick.
Let’s look at some other insurance. Like Worker’s Compensation for example. Some employer uses a product in all innocence that turns out to be extremely hazardous. Like asbestos. Result: more WC claims than the company could ever handle by itself. So who picks up the tab and makes sure the employees get the medical care they are entitled to? That’s right, bozo.
And deductibles? Here’s a hint: insurance is priced based on expected payouts. No deductible = your insurance premium goes up. A lot, since there may be many claims a year that would be less than the deductible. It’s a way of allowing you to self-insure that which you can afford. Your annoyance with deductibles is in direct opposition to your initial argument of not wanting insurance.
Try not to rant about that which you clearly don’t understand. And stop being so fucking paranoid. The world isn’t out to get you. Insurance companies have been losing money for years.
Unlike the above Woody Allen film, I do not object to insurers or the concept of insurance per se.
It’s totally irresponsible to drive without insurance. Both for your own personal solvency, and for the solvency of the people you might hit.
And I sympathise with companies that are running at a loss. But not in Ireland. The cartel isn’t losing money. They have their hand up your arse, right to the elbow, and while they’re charging you extra on your premiums due to “the knock-on effects of 9-11”, they’re recording BIGGER PROFITS THAN EVER. Cunts.
As you may have guessed, I’ve just got a quote in for my annual car premium. Which is over a thousand Euro, despite the fact that I’ve got 7 years’ no-claims, am 35, have a boring car, and have had my clean driving license for 18 years.
Somehow they still contrive to lose money. Lots of it. Insurance is mostly an exercise in creative ways to lose money.
One of my clients is - or rather was - an arbitrage syndicate - a Lloyd’s Syndicate that, basically, existed to screw reinsurers. They did well on this for years until one day the reinsurers said, basically, “fuck that - we’re not paying.” That was about 6 years ago and the legal battles are still ongoing. In the meantime, the Names have lost everything, the Syndicate has closed and I have lots of work.
Welcome to the wonderful world of London Market Insurance - catchphrase “Everybody loses!”
Most people of “adequate means” buy health insurance because it is cost effective and they wish to continue to manage their finances wisely. Auto insurance is the law. It’s also a good way to keep from losing the roof over your head.
I wouldn’t say we were consumed by insurance. Insurance is simply a good idea in case anything goes wrong.
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Let’s say you accidentally drop a cheese log while you’re driving and you reach for it when it rolls under the seat. Congratulations, you just ran a red light and hit me while I was on my motorcycle. I know you’re thinking “I would never do that I’m a safe driver.” Well, accidents do happen and that’s why we have insurance. So now I’m in the hospital with several broken ribs, a collapsed lung, a missing spleen, a broken arm, a broken leg, and my other leg had to be amputated just below the knee. Thankfully the motorcycle sustained very little damage.
We’ll be generous and say it takes 6 months for my injuries to heal and for me to learn how to walk on a prosthetic limb. During that 6 months I can’t work so my house payments, my car payments, and any other bills I might have go unpaid. Add to that the staggering cost of my hospitalization and I’m in dire straights financially speaking. Do you have the money to pay my hospital bills as well as my monthly bills? If I were to sue you would that money somehow magically appear? Let’s face it, you just fucked me up the ass without using K-Y or having the common courtesy to give me a reach around.
Don’t worry about me though. I have insurance that would cover my bills should I be injured and unable to work for extended periods of time.
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Driving isn’t a right. Most states require by law that you at least have some insurance on your vehicle.
Dude, you were CCed on the hyperencrypted Cabbal memo. It’s not our fault if you don’t read this shit. And while we’re on the subject, where were you at the last secret hazing ceremony? We had to use our own butter-knives.
Insurance is a way of getting a large group of people to pay a fairly small amount, to protect the individuals in the group from having to pay an (unexpected) large amount. That is, we all pay premiums for car insurance, so that if one of us in an accident as described by MGibson, the insurance company will pay the huge amount rather than bankrupting the individual involved.
It’s a case of the group protecting the individual from unexpected high losses.
Deductibles are usually small amounts, comparatively, and so are not viewed as “unexpected” or “high” costs.
Auto insurance – My son is a safe driver, and has never caused an accident. He swerved to avoid a dog on the highway, the car went into a skid and was totalled (no one hurt, thank God.) No way he could have afforded a new car; but he had afforded the insurance premiums, and the company paid for a new car.
His rates are NOT higher – that’s a myth. You have to have a really horrible track record for that.
And health insurance companies do not drop you because you get sick. That’s another myth.
Broadway Danny thinks he’d rather take care of himself. OK, but why stop at insurance? Let’s talk taxes – I mean, you pay taxes for the police and fire departments, don’t you? And you have never needed their services! Same thing as insurance!! … to be consistent, you should join the Committee to Abolish the Police and Fire Departments.
Except in Ireland. They double if there’s a single claim: your fault or not.
By the way, not wishing to hijack the thread, but the “socialized” medicine, as well as welfare, payments, that we have in the UK are known as “National Insurance”.
My insurance paid for my surgery last November. I never could have afforded it on my own.
And if someone hits me in my car, I want to KNOW that I’m getting reimbursed for my expenses, etc. I don’t want to have to rely on him having enough money and being good about paying it to me. Maybe YOU are a millionaire, but they don’t make the rules based on YOU.
Property and Casualty insurance paid for my rent and groceries and everything for 13 years. I was an insurance broker in Canada, making sure that assholes like you weren’t jailed for driving without insurance. Insurance payed for my neighbour’s house and all of its contents and their home while their house was being rebuilt after a fire. Insurance paid for my car when an asshole like you without insurance rammed into my parked car, rendering it undriveable, and me without a way to transport my child to daycare or the doctor or anything. Car insurance is paying for our vehicle to be fixed after my accident last week, and would also be paying for any injuries that I, and the other driver, may have sustained. Health insurance is responsible for my lifestyle now, as that is my husband’s profession. It also affords people, such as my aunt who recently died a long and painful death from Cancer, to live as comfortably as possible. It paid for a good friend’s surgery and contributes to her quality of life. It pays for my husband’s root canal. Life Insurance eases the troubles of the surviving family members when someone dies.
You have a problem with that? Perhaps you would like to support us. You can hate Insurance all you like, but you’re fucked without it. Let’s not forget how it’s required by law - but then, the Government wouldn’t know anything, would it?
Also, many countries (UK included) have a rule that if you are sufficiently rich, you are allowed to self-insure your car. There is a catch though - you need to ringfence the funds in a separate trust, which you then can’t touch. And the amount is generally of the order of $1m.
I should point out that pretty much universally the only obligitory car insurance is third party liability. The government don’t give a stuff what you do with your own damages but they want to make sure you can pay up for the person you injure.
(A little interesting quiz for you. In the UK, there are only 4 insurances required by law, for those to whom they apply. Three of them are: Auto 3rd party liability, employer’s liability and nuclear establishments. Can anyone guess at the fourth?)
This keeps happening. The constant references to felching, munging and the rest of Coldfire’s research seems to convince my anti-spam software that the memo should get kicked.