Re-insurance causes home rates to soar

[lovuian]

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=776d711e9eeb2573
The reason home insurance costs are rising is because insurers need to buy insurance to protect themselves, the Houston Chronicle reports.

Subsequently, insurance companies are passing the costs to their customers.

Insurance companies are reportedly investing more in re-insurance -- the coverage companies buy for themselves in case of catastrophic losses like storm damage. When primary insurers receive rate hikes, consumers get hit as well.
more...
Insurance companies in America are getting greedy not just in healthcare but now with our homes...

[ixion]

1. so they insure themselves, at our expense

nice, huh?

Insurance companies are a pox on society, IMO.

[TheMadMonk]

3. Whilst I'm no fonder of the bloodsucking leaches than...

anyone else, they are however, businesses and are perfectly within their rights to pass their costs onto consumers like any other business.

Medical malpractice, liability and bigger and badder disasters have all taken huge chunks out of the haunches of insurance companies, if they are to survive they too need their "pound of flesh".

They may be gouging by passing on more than they than they themselves have been slugged by the uber-insurers, but that is not clear from the original post and the subject of a different discussion.

BTW, who should meet the cost when your house burns down or something falls off your car and injures someone else? Insurance companies cover "bets" that no ordinary individual could cover on his own. If a bookie down at the track can't cover his liabilities he doesn't stay in business and may findhimself involved in an unpleasant concatentation of dark alley, hammer and kneecaps. Insurers who fail to cover their "bets" also fail to stay in business and its principals may too get their own "dark alley" moment in a well lit courtroom.

So remember that the next time you are tempted to take someone (particularly a company) for all they have, because they done you wrong. Odds are you won't really hurt them, but instead frationally increase the burden of every body else as the insurance company shortens their odds in order to recoup their losses.

{edit: missing word)

[depakid]

6. And yet

Insurers Saw Record Gains in Year of Catastrophic Loss

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-insure5apr05,0,3061059.story?coll=la-home-nation

Seems to me like you might want to have another look at the equations-

[TheMadMonk]

10. So it would seem that they are indeed gouging.

However, that, as I said earlier is a different debate to the one raised in the OP, which was essentially "Insurers are covering their bets with other bookies and I'm being asked to pay for that. Bastards!"

There was no evidenced raised (such as you put forward) that they were passing on more than their costs.

[ixion]

9. anything that you're FORCED to use by law is not a business in

the traditional sense. It becomes an arm of the state.

Insurance is not a typical business. It's a scam, IMO.

[TheMadMonk]

11. AFAIK, no person is absolutely required to have inssureance.

However you may be required to take out some forms of insurance as a condition under certain circumstances.

Home/business owners are required to have public liability to cover injury to others on their property.
Morgtagees have to have property insurance.
Drivers have to have insurance to cover personal injury to anyone they might hit.

Essentially, if there is a chance of significant loss to another party you are required to hedge your bet since very few individuals or businesses have the ability to meet the price of that loss out of their own pockets.

If you are the only one who will suffer any loss as a result of accident/act of god, then the law generally allows you to do as you damned well please and suffer the consequences when or if they eventuate.

[ixion]

12. as I said, anything you're forced to buy

is not a business.

Here's a example. I have a software company. I lobby congress to pass a law that says any webpage must be made only by certain companies, removing the choice in the matter. Suddenly my little software company is now very popular because people are being FORCED to use my service. At this point I no longer have to be concerned about my client base, and can raise my rates to whatever I feel like, RATHER THAN WHAT THE MARKET WILL BEAR. See, the example is no longer capitalism. It's socialism now. As such, the rates should be mandated by the State, who saw to it that a law was created requiring it.

See what I'm saying?

[ThoughtCriminal]

2. Allstate just bumped my term life insurance premium up 44%

this quarter. OK I'm getting older, but 44% in one quarter? Sheesh, it's not like I just took up rock climbing - I'm in great shape and posting here is pretty much my only "vice". I guess the cost of fighting storm claims on the Gulf Coast is getting passed on to me too.

I'm going shopping for new insurance next week.

[liberalhistorian]

4. Do you have mediocre or bad credit?

Insurance companies now use credit reports and credit ratings, believe it or not, as part of their determination of premiums for each customer. I've been with them for SEVENTEEN fucking years, and they just increased my auto insurance by over $700 a year (nearly $250 jump each six month quarter) due to my credit rating. I switched my insurance from Ohio to South Dakota, and they used that as an excuse to check my rating and up my rates, the fuckers. They claim credit ratings have proven "effective" in predicting chances of accidents/claims, which I believe is total bullshit. Pretty soon, our fucking credit profile is going to run our entire lives.

I've put them on notice that, when my policy renewal is set to kick in in a month, they can shove it up their ass because I'm going somewhere else, even if it's higher rates (apparently, all insurance companies now use your fucking credit report to set rates). SEVENTEEN years with them, only ONE claim seven years ago, and they pull this shit! Allstate SUCKS!

[ThoughtCriminal]

5. Nope - excellent credit.

I have not had a chance to call them yet and ask WTF, but they are going to have a hard time keeping me as a customer.

[depakid]

7. They claim credit ratings have proven "effective"

Their "claim" is spurious, but if you're in a state that refuses to regulate- insurers will steal from you like almost no other industry.

In Oregon, after several years (with some progress) in legislative efforts we've finally had to put a ballot initiative up this year to deal with this dishonest practice-

[bemildred]

8. For profit insurance is a ponzi scheme. nt