Re: State Farm cancels my insurance.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ratbert</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Shark0311</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Ratbert</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Homeowners insurance is intended to cover catastrophic loss of your home and the belongings inside, not as some sort of alternative to a homeowner having to pay for home repairs. This is exactly the sort of problem we have with health insurance. People think that it should be some sort of season pass for unlimited healthcare and bitch and moan about $20 co-pays. If everyone had a $5000 deductible and just used insurance as a means of not going bankrupt when hit by a bus then it would be a very different debate going on in DC these days.
First, only consider what you paid in homeowners insurance because that is the policy being discussed here. Then you can't just compare your premiums over 20 years vs the $18,000. You also have to consider that for 20 years they maintained the liability of having to be prepared to cover your costs just in case your home HAD burned down. They had to stay in business, pay people, remain capitalized so that if your home was lost they could respond, so that you really didn't have to worry your pretty little head about it during all that time.
No, I don't sell insurance. I don't even buy the extended warranty. Hell, my wife's a doctor; I despise insurance companies. But really, what sort of response WERE you looking for, if not sympathy? </div></div>
First of all Fuck You. My company pays $18,000 per year to insure me and my family. That is part of my compensation package. Even with two kids my medical bills haven't topped $40,000 and I have been receiving this benefit for 10 years.
Workman's comp. insurance $140,000/year. In 12 years we have utilized $250,000 in claims. That's $1,680,000 paid for $250,000 of use. Once I build up enough capital we are going to switch to a self insured model. </div></div>
I'm not entirely clear what I said that got you so mad. It certainly sounds like you pay a lot of money for insurance. That sucks. My wife also pays quite a bit for her malpractice insurance and for 10 years I was self-employed pay my own insurance, I can empathize. But "insurance costs too much" wasn't really the original topic of the thread nor, I thought, any part of my response so I am a little confused as to why you became so upset.
Concerning the $18000 health benefits, I have no idea what that covers or what your medical situation is but I will assume that since it is part of your compensation package that you are part of a group plan. The cost of your insurance is, therefore, partially the result of the health condition of the others in your policy group. If there are a lot of older, smoking, and/or otherwise high-medical cost members in your group then the cost of supporting your group's policy will be high and each member will bear an equal portion of that cost (within the parameters of selected options pricing, etc.) Join a small company with a few older coworkers with cancer patients as family members and it is not difficult to see why your medical insurance might be really expensive. This is why I personally think that if medical insurance is to be fair it should either be entirely individual (essentially no insurance, each person pays their own way) or it should be as large and all encompassing as possible so that the cost is shared over the entire population equally (progressive or otherwise.)
This has strayed somewhat off topic, but that is the reason 'medical insurance' isn't 'insurance.' Everyone buys fire insurance (well, except maybe the OP now...) but a very very small number of people ever actually have a fire and need to make a claim. As a result, fire insurance is relatively affordable and I think most would agree that even if they never make a claim against the policy the risk abatement paying the premium provides against the value of their house and possessions is a good buy. However, unlike fire insurance, very VERY few people will manage to shuffle off this mortal coil without needing medical treatment of some kind. Eventually, we ALL use it. Consequently it isn't so much an insurance policy as it is a public infrastructure, like a highway. Some people use it more than others but in the end the fact that it is there improves all our lives both directly (when we go for a trip on the highway, or when we break our legs and go to the doctor) and indirectly (when we go to the store and it is fully stocked from the trucks that brought inventory in, or when we look around and see that public health hasn't degraded to the point that all our neighbors have the plague.)
Workers comp TRIES to be like fire insurance. In a perfect world it would be cost effective and contribute to the stability of your company by reducing your exposure to liability for worker injuries. However while it sounds like you have a solid staff of reliable employees, the workers compensation system is horribly abused by people attempting to make claims for which it was not intended and thus running up the cost for policy premiums necessary to pay these claims. And thus workman's comp, which should be like Fire Insurance, is actually more like health insurance. Not an insurance program but rather and entitlement, just one paid by private industry rather than from the government. However I would first blame those making fraudulent claims (and the doctors willing to vouch for them.) </div></div>
Hey man I'm not upset with you. That's just a typical overbearing Marine's response to an asinine comment about health insurance.
My personal belief is that insurance is for people that cannot plan accordingly and do not know how to mitigate risk. It is a terrible industry that plays on the fears of the unprepared. There are certain insurance policies that I do believe have value such as general liability. Health insurance on the other hand is a scam. If I could shelter this benefit from taxation and invest the money and it's earnings in another vehicle I would in a heartbeat. As of yet I do not know of a vehicle that would accomplish this goal.
Lets face it insurance companies make money because they know that statistically you will not utilize the limits of their policy.
Home owners insurance is another matter in that it is a very low cost option. I would not recommend using it for trivial matters more than once.
On the other hand a person should not need to use it if they maintain their home properly and asses risk associated with weather, repair or construction.
If you are not willing to manage your money or save for the unexpected than by all means pay for the luxury. I would say that certain forms of insurance is for the fiscally handicapped.