Insurance Pains

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Darkwolf,
I'm for non-profit insurance. Same goes for electricity, water, public transport by the way.

IMO FDR was quite farsighted when he imposed regulation on some key markets. And America could need a Truman today, too. IIRC his first laurels were earned fighting war profiteering.

Responsible citizens doing the comptrolling over *their* money should prevent such lapses of free market and profiteering like the california energy crisis.

But we don't want that, do we? Public oversight?! Horrors! Let's rather praise 'free enterprise'. We violate the law by ignoring regulation and faking accounts? No problem. Our buddies in D.C. legalise us by changing legislation. Only fair, considering we donate to their election campaigns so faithfully.
Free market, high priced accountants and accounting standards - and shareholder oversignt - didn't prevent ENRON from ripping off their shareholders.

Some things are not suitable for the free market. Some people say the market settles everything. Bah! Humbug.

So does death.

As for doctors, and other professionals, it would be a little far fetched to expect them to invest so much in their job training and studies to then work for free.
The few Mother Theresas and Florence Nightingales around are simply insuffient in numbers to kee things up and running.

 

@ Jag,

I've plugged your details into an insurance site here (guessing some). Think yourself lucky, your insurance in London would probably be over £1250.
I guess it's probably cheaper in Canada though! Have you tried an on-line quote from a company in one of the other provinces?

 

Actually, what Jaguar is paying seems pretty damned cheap to me. I just ran the quote for an Ontario driver, age 20 with no claims but two speeding tickets driving a 92 Ford Escort with a $300 deductable and the quote I received was $5,500/annum.

That seems a little high to me - I would have expected it to be somewhere in the mid-$3000 range. So, does the ICBC still sound so bad?

I am currently paying $1,654 per year. I am driving a 2004 Toyota Camry with a $500 deductable, but I am also 29 , I have been insured for over a decade and I have a clean record (no claims, no tickets).

 

Sounds like some of you are getting ripped off big-time. I pay about NZ$500 (GBP 190, USD 365, CAN 450) per year for comprehensive insurance on my 2002 Toyota Caldina.

 

Well I guess everybody has covered all the important points. I just find it strange that a part of Canada would allow a monopolistic-type institution. History has shown them to be inefficient and abusive.

 

@HB - It helps that you're married (big insurance savings) and it also helps if you're at least 30 (you may or may not be, I don't know, but married with a child, it's certainly possible).

Car insurance is extremely variable in the U.S., but it's safe to say if you're an unmarried man under the age of 30, and especially under the age of 25, you're paying a ton, even with a clean driving record.

When I was single, I was paying about $900 per year in auto insurance. Since I got married we are now under the same insurance plan, and the cost is only about $1200 per year. Now I know my wife paid more than $300 per year before she married me (but almost certainly less than the $900 I paid), but both of our costs decreased after we got married.

Basically, I'd say the main reason for less cost of auto insurance in NZ is because there are fewer people, and thus fewer accidents. You don't have a ton of huge cities responsible for hundreds of fender-benders every day. Insurance companies are obviously charging you a lot less because they are paying out a lot less.

 

Aldeth, what does being married have to do with the price of insurance? I don't think there's even a box on the form to indicate marital status.

 

Wow. Marriage is not a factor in insurance premium calculation here. Maybe because falling marriage rates make the title less meaningful than it might have been a few years ago.

 

Basically what dmc said. Insurance companies want to make money, but because of competition want to make their rates competitive. So for people less likely the get in an accident, they charge less. I don't have the statistics on hand, but just as I am sure that insurance is less in NZ because the insurance companies are paying significantly less out in NZ, I'm sure the reason that married individuals are being charged less than unmarried ones is because the married ones are costing the insurnace companies less money.

I agree with your thoughts HB that marriage doesn't magically transform you into a better driver. It is more likely that when one is ready to get married they have reached a higher level of maturity, and are more responsible people. As such, they are less likely the be speeding or otherwise driving irresponsibly. I think being married is more of an end result than a cause in this case.