Insurance: Money well spent?
Premiums can be expensive, and if you never file a claim, it may seem as if you're throwing your money away. So when is insurance worth the expense?
By Investopedia
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Everything in life is a gamble, some are just better or worse gambles than others. Insurance costs anger me, especially when I have well paid over $100k in premiums over my lifetime for about $3k in total claims. I know a few people who never bought any insurance they didn't have to buy and have never had any health, auto, home, etc. problems and have saved many thousands of dollars, but................... we all have to sleep at night so I consider insurance premium costs the price of a good night's sleep every night.
Their unfair premium costs still upset me at times, as these should be much more closely related to ind'l claim incidence.........no claims, no tickets....... pay a negligible premium. But, no. This would be so very easy to calculate and put into effect but insurance co's won't do it. They like taking big money in and paying out very little......... just ask Warren Buffett. Why do you think he is so rich?
The most profitable companies on the planet are insurance companies. Enormous intakes of cash with very low pay-outs.
By law you must have Auto insurance if you own a vehicle, and now by law you must by Health Insurance. A law that forces you to buy a product, bizarre. Takes all the pressure off having to win customers through product innovation, competitive pricing and customer satisfaction.
To make sure your company doesn’t get stuck with any big claims you create and industry called Re-insurance (that’s insurance for the insurance), you base these companies off-shore in Bermuda or the Caymans. You separate cash flow from liabilities in these corporations by reselling the liability so many times that government regulators can't figure out who owns the liability.
Then the given Government steps in to cover the losses with your taxes. Think Katrina or Japan
Other off-shore companies (Hedge Funds) receive all the premiums paid and reinvest that money in various markets. When that money gets poorly invested you get an AIG, then the government gives them your tax dollars to stay in business.
Finally, all that insurance makes you appear much wealthier than you really are. So your Doctor(s), Collision Shop, Home Builder, Pharmaceutical Company etc, raise the cost of their services and products dramatically which in turn causes your insurance company to raise your premiums.
I would be so angry if your car hit mine and you caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage and medical bills and I had to foot the bill for your stupidity because you couldn't be responsible for your mistakes. This is a weak article, but we still need insurance.
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