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If every accident involved one insured driver and one iuninsured. insurers would pay no clams. Insurance companies would love it, even more than thay love the status quo, which guarantees them huge profits, no risk, and a publicly-funded patrol to write certificates to raise rates. And enough premium surplus to pay tor an ad in every TV break.
As a lawyer, I find faults in our insurance system. However, I also believe insurance companies are faulted for things they really have no control over.
Auto insurance companies are not responsible for high body shop prices and for body shops that literally see them as targets.
Auto insurance companies are not responsible for high health care prices.
Auto insurance companies are not responsible for laws in most states that require them to insure even the worst drivers through SR-22 programs and alike.
People don't like auto insurance companies because many don't want to pay for car insurance. Some people seem to think that all insurance companies do is pay for broken fenders to cars when in reality they make large payments to those injured in accidents.
Car insurance is a competitive industry. No fewer than two dozen companies sell insurance in my state Utah. The market regulates insurance prices whether anyone wants to see it or not.
Finally, the real profit in car insurance comes from investing premiums. The claims part of it is not a money-maker.
Let's also remember that a great number of insurance companies are mutual companies. In that event, all the "profits" earned go back to policy holders.
The biggest pushers of higher insurance rates are:
Texting and driving.
Low gas prices (people driver farther).
Increased number of airbags (they are super expensive to reinstall).
Back-up cams (invariably destroyed in a rear-end collision and expensive to reinstall).
Increasing cost of medical care.
As pointed out above, all of these things are outside of an insurance company's control.
And some people just can't afford it. So they drive uninsured. I have a client right now whose insurance cost is about $67 a month, and she just can't afford it.
Tell her to cry you a river. If she can't afford even at low rate for insurance, than she can't afford to own a car or to have a license. I pay $98/month for my insurance AND I just shelled out $1,460 for new front brake pads, rear shoes and drums, front rotors and 4 new tires, plus new rear shocks. This is on a 7 year old car that I bought 6 months ago and have put almost 6,000 miles on already.
Let's see her get into an accident with deaths or serious injuries and see how well she can afford that. Everybody should be paying serious heed to that Schoharie, NY limo accident and be making sure their own vehicles are up to roadworthy standards. That company chose to not pay a very cheap price in order to pass a required safety inspection and keep a professional-use vehicle roadworthy.
Tell her to cry you a river. If she can't afford even at low rate for insurance, than she can't afford to own a car or to have a license. I pay $98/month for my insurance AND I just shelled out $1,460 for new front brake pads, rear shoes and drums, front rotors and 4 new tires, plus new rear shocks. This is on a 7 year old car that I bought 6 months ago and have put almost 6,000 miles on already.
Let's see her get into an accident with deaths or serious injuries and see how well she can afford that. Everybody should be paying serious heed to that Schoharie, NY limo accident and be making sure their own vehicles are up to roadworthy standards. That company chose to not pay a very cheap price in order to pass a required safety inspection and keep a professional-use vehicle roadworthy.
Somehow, I doubt she owns three paid-for rental properties and has a 401K. Broke is broke. Sure, they sue her, what happens? She declares bankruptcy.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Creamer1
Insurance is a scam, I will never drive with it.
Keep that attitude up and you'll never drive (legally) with it, either.
Tell her to cry you a river. If she can't afford even at low rate for insurance, than she can't afford to own a car or to have a license. I pay $98/month for my insurance AND I just shelled out $1,460 for new front brake pads, rear shoes and drums, front rotors and 4 new tires, plus new rear shocks. This is on a 7 year old car that I bought 6 months ago and have put almost 6,000 miles on already.
Let's see her get into an accident with deaths or serious injuries and see how well she can afford that. Everybody should be paying serious heed to that Schoharie, NY limo accident and be making sure their own vehicles are up to roadworthy standards. That company chose to not pay a very cheap price in order to pass a required safety inspection and keep a professional-use vehicle roadworthy.
Well, she can't afford it. She's 65+ and she's disabled. Her total income is around $800 a month, and her rent is $500. She was trying to get her brother to give me his bank account information to get her started, but that fizzled out.
She'll continue to drive to Smith's and back twice a week uninsured.
In the Canadian Province of Ontario the MINIMUM fine for " drive with no insurance ": is FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS, and at the discretion of the Judge ( usually with personal injuries or death involved ) it can go up to Twenty Five Thousand Dollars.
The idea is to make it SO costly to be convicted, that buying insurance is a bargain by comparison .
Link to Ontario regulation and fines for driving without insurance.
In the Canadian Province of Ontario the MINIMUM fine for " drive with no insurance ": is FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS, and at the discretion of the Judge ( usually with personal injuries or death involved ) it can go up to Twenty Five Thousand Dollars.
The idea is to make it SO costly to be convicted, that buying insurance is a bargain by comparison .
Link to Ontario regulation and fines for driving without insurance.
I favor these kind of strict penalties. I would like to go a step further and do these things:
1. Make it clear the fine cannot be discharged in bankruptcy court. It should stay on the person's record until it is paid.
2. Impose actual jail time for repeat offenders who drive without insurance. I view driving without insurance as a form of theft where those who do it prey on the vast majority of us who do continuously maintain insurance on our vehicles.
3. Driver education should contain a segment that deals with the severe consequences of driving without insurance.
[monkey wrench flag on] How did the right to travel on public roads become a regulated privilege to drive, and require that one gamble with underwriters (insurance)?
Let's not think about that.
How about a national initiative to get electric traction rail restored?
90% savings on fuel. Save 45,000 lives annually. (Passenger deaths via RR are practically nil, worldwide).
Only problem would be ruining the profit margins of the automobile / petroleum / pavement hegemony.
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