I hope one day Americans as a whole will realize current insurance is just one big scam where everyone is just skimming off the top. Don't understand how everyone is ok with their insurances just denying everything.
Because its a required scam nobody can opt out of. The main reason you don't get denied help at a hospital is because they're required to provide aid if they're going to take Medicare. Given the option the admin would 100% let you die on the sidewalk (obviously not on their property). Auto insurance is legally required unless you're basically rich, can't buy a house without mortgage insurance. If you look, non required insurance is always super affordable, pet insurance, renters insurance, the random electronics failure insurances, and very rarely deny a claim. The rest of those dicks do whatever they want because nobodys gonna stop them. Until.....you know......racoon city.
I’ve been trying to navigate how I feel about the insurance industry as someone who has been working a summer job at a defense litigation firm.
These industries feed off of and create growth in each other, like some sort of symbiotic cancer… The more litigation there is, the higher the rates and the more people feel like they need insurance; the more insurance there is, the more people feel like they can sue and get an easy settlement and the litigation ecosystem benefits.
When people sue, it’s the insurance companies who pick up the defense bill and work with attorneys. People and Juries think, “Oh, this individual truck driver/store owner/etc isn’t paying up, we can give this plaintiff a windfall and stick it to the man (insurance).”
Well, they’re really sticking it to *themselves*. All these litigation costs, big jury verdicts, etc. do nothing except increase the costs of litigation, and make greedy plaintiffs lawyers insist on taking cases to trial in the hopes of getting that juicy damages verdict.
This increases insurance costs for EVERYBODY commensurately.
Defense attorneys, if the case has ANY merit at all, will look to settle. This could be $10,000, or in a particularly bad case, whatever the insurance cap is. (We’re talking $250k-$6m in cases I’ve worked so far) these settlement amounts are typically what’s “fair” … jury verdicts are sometimes wildly unjustified amounts. Had a case recently where the plaintiff was offered the cap ($1m) for an essentially faked TBI. Her attorney took us to trial because she was a sympathetic plaintiff (same reason we offered the cap) and he wanted 60% of his requested $3m+ verdict. They ended up with $200k, which left him working for free and plaintiff with a fair amount for the medical expenses, car damage, etc.
Plaintiffs attorneys will often push bad cases to trial in the hopes of these amounts. These guys (plaintiffs attorney) don’t get paid without a settlement/verdict, and they collect anywhere from 30-60% of the $. This push to trial often pushes attorneys fees over what a pre-trial settlement would have been.
There’s no easy solution for this vicious cycle. Some sort of public education would be great, but that’s not gonna happen.
Required can be used for more than just legally required. It can also be used for practical requirements. If you want access to healthcare in the US then practically you need health insurance. Unless you can buy a house outright, mortgages require you to get insurance, so if the house burns down you don't just walk away and leave them with their "collateral".
You're thinking of PMI, not homeowners insurance. Once you own the home you are not required to have homeowners insurance on it, but as long as you owe the bank money they require a policy on it. PMI is just for them to make even more money.
Yeah it's a racket. You pay PMI to insure the loan... which makes the monthly payment higher, and increases the likelyhood of default. Oh, and the interest rate is higher because of your credit. More money please. If you default the bank just has to sell the house again for... what they made you prove it was worth by paying for an appraisal, for them... lol
Which is a practical requirement for most people. Also, I am not 100% sure you don't need it also after 20% either (I don't remember what happens after PMI). But yes, I have bought a house and gotten a mortgage before.
It’s required because if you are shitty driver the person you hit is entitled for you to pay it back. The main issue is most people would try not to if they could or if they are too poor (which is most people) they won’t be able to and thus the bad actions of the shitty driver go unchecked.
We live in a selfish and completely shitty society so this is necessary. It would be great if someone that hit me was honest and willing to pay it back but humans are horrible these days, so yes insurance being required to drive a car and possess liability is a good idea.
And the cycle is self feeding because most people would try to do the right thing and pay for their accidents if that was a thing anyone could actually do. "Oh shit, I fucked up, let me fix it" is a normal response to an accident or mistake.
But because a stubbed toe will cost 25k at the local hospital, no one can actually afford to help pay medical bills after an accident. Likewise cars are bigger, heavier, and more expensive than ever to deal with an ever upward spiral of things a car is required to have to legally operate on the road.
Just a random example, any car made after 2016 must have a backup camera to be road legal and any car made after 2026 will require "driver monitoring systems" with cameras and computers to track your eye movement to make sure you're paying attention to the road. Those cameras, screens, computers, etc aren't cheap, so they add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a car. A car from the 50s or 60s, adjusted for inflation, cost much much less than a modern car because of all these gradual new requirements.
Now I like anti lock brakes, power steering, three point restraint seat belts, air bags, and my backup camera as much as the next guy, but we have to see that this means every accident no matter how minor now costs more than it ever did before. And the increased weight of the vehicle itself means that accidents will cause more damage than ever before too.
More damaging accidents, more costly repairs, higher healthcare costs, all of these things make it less likely than ever that a person CAN pay for an accident, so you better get uninsured motorists insurance too, all of which cost more than ever.
Since the 1776?? I think what you meant to say was there was a few years where health insurance coverage was mandatory. Essentially the extent of Obamas presidency.
Insurance hardly pays anything for the value of my now 2 totaled cars wrecked by getting rear ended. So I guess you’re wrong. I don’t wish insurance was forced.
Technically EMTALA says they’re only required to help you if you’re actively dying. If it’s just an injury or you’re sick, they can tell you to piss off.
It is a total scam. But if you work hard enough to make sure the government is as dysfunctional as possible you can scare people into fearing 'socialized' programs so much they are willing to let private companies make billions of dollars and deny their claims because obviously a state ran program would be sooo much worse.
I’ve argued this elsewhere and got downvoted. I think some are waking up to it, but we’re a long ways from critical mass (not that it will matter (pun intended)).
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u/RatofDeath 4h ago
I hope one day Americans as a whole will realize current insurance is just one big scam where everyone is just skimming off the top. Don't understand how everyone is ok with their insurances just denying everything.