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Thousands of Los Angeles homeowners were dropped by their insurers before the Palisades Fire
(www.cbsnews.com)
Perhaps the most interesting part of the article:
this post was submitted on 11 Jan 2025
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Man insurance is such a scam. They'll only actually offer hypothetical coverage if they know you won't need it 😅
Actually need it? "Well, we have to make a profit! Why would we pay for that thing you're paying us to cover?"
An insurance company takes the data it has about whatever someone wants to insure, uses its actuarial system to find out what its risk value is, and then charges you slightly more than that value over time.
You will probably never need the service, but if you do, they’ll help you out. Because they’re charging more than the actual risk value, over time and over a large enough subset of clients, they’ll make some profit, even while paying to replace or fix people’s houses. Which is fine, they are providing a service and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with profiting from providing a service. You win, they win, everyone benefits.
In return, you get the peace of mind of knowing that if the worst happens, you’ll be at least somewhat better off and able to afford to rebuild.
If the risk of event X gets too high in an area, and the company isn’t allowed to say, “You’re covered for everything but X,” the company would either need to charge enough to cover essentially the value of the house on such a short timeframe as to be untenable, or stop providing coverage. They don’t have infinite money, so if they‘re forced to provide coverage at a lower rate than the risk level, and something like a massive hurricane or flood or fire happens, they go bankrupt. Now no one gets their house rebuilt.
Just because a company only operates where they make a profit doesn’t make them a scam. They aren’t a charity or a public service.
I can't help but see it this way too. And healthcare before some of the ACA's protections was similar. "Yes, give us those premiums, everything's looking pretty safe, we've got you covered if something happens! Wink wink, nothing does really, so we've got you!"
And then the moment that changes, it's "woah there, too risky for us, are you crazy? We're gonna lose money! You're on your own". And all the 10s of thousands paid when times were good and there was very little likelihood you'd need help are just gone, and fuck you.
I understand insurance companies only make sense if the risk of paying out heavily is small enough. But still, you paid to be covered when the shit gets bad, they should have to taper down over time or return some premiums or something. Not just "welp thanks for all the money, it looks like we're gonna have to start giving some out soon so we're just gonna stop here while we're ahead". It's just a legal scam.
Don’t forget it used to be “We’ve got you covered except for the thing you’re actually sick with.” from when they refused pre-existing conditions.
Wish I could forget my friend. My mother got clipped with that, she ain't been with us for a while and I finished raising her daughter for her.
Fuck "health insurance" companies. Free Luigi Mangi-mothafuckin-one, too!
Yeah it is. I made a claim for hail damage then It made me uninsurable/insane premiums when I moved for 5 year, no fault thing from mother nature but ya know it's my fault they had to pay out. I was told if I made 3 or more claims in 5 years I be uninsurable, hoping my home stays safe from this fire that's 2miles away from me....
The thing is if you buy a home and in California it's likely 1mm plus in the la region. You're paying huge mortgage rate more so with insurance and the recent rates basically house poor. If you loose your house you still have to pay the bank so you can't afford to live anywhere right? So with out insurance buying a home is one step away from being destitute?
It's needs to be a state sponsored thing and nonprofit. Like fire departments if everyone loses their home who's left to taxes, or even stay there.
I live 1 mile from the no insurance zone and in Los Angeles it took me weeks to find anyone to even cover our home after being dropped because "we have a flat roof" we don't, it's bs excuse.
Seems to me non privilege stuff should be a government run thing. Everyone should have a right to health care and housing and food. None of this shit should be for profit, fuck insurance.
Sorry realized I went on a rant.
I'm in a safe-ish area and was told 2 claims in 3 years and they wouldn't renew my insurance. Been here over 20 years and had one claim 10 years ago.
Had lightning hit and called the insurance directly, they opened a claim number but we ended up not using it. Meaning they paid $0 because it turned out to be a simple fix, it was just scary in the moment at 3am with water gushing out (not into the house). So we just paid the $300 to fix it and they closed the claim.
Two years after that we called when a tree hit the house, went a different route and called the independent agent first, not the insurance company directly and that's when we learned if we started a claim for the tree damage, they probably wouldn't renew. Ended up being almost $3000 out of pocket so we can keep the house insured and the mortgage company happy.
Yeah that's the worst, even if you just call them to ask if something is covered they will still make a note and use it against you.