I am tired like everyone else. Tired of the whining, tired of the insurance rates, tired of hearing the SF vs. Ins’d #4055. To me, here’s the bottom line.
People make choices in life, but unfortunately people are not trained to deal with the consequences when their choice turns out poorly. Case in point, underinsurance in the Gulf states and EVERYWHERE else!
I live in New Orleans and I ride around appalled at what I see. Here’s the catch. A lot of what is still bad was bad before, it’s just that people lived there then. A lot of people didn’t have insurance or not enough not because they did not have the money, but because they made a conscious decision NOT to buy it. And with the programs that have come about from the chaos caused by Katrina, WHY SHOULD THEY BUY IT FOR NEXT TIME? The system here is set up to protect those who make a choice to be irresponsible. Some people get up and go to work every day to earn a living to support their family with a decent lifestyle. We don’t all ask anyone for anything. We pay our bills and we have the best insurance we can buy. It is our choice to be responsible and there are a lot of our type out here.
Do you think that someone actually made up these New Orleans t-shirts that say things like, “I stayed for Katrina and all I got was FEMA money, a New Cadillac, and a plasma TV”? That really happened! The money is here. There is more money now than there ever has been before. FREE money to those who can prove that they did not have enough insurance money to pay for their damages. First of all, there are ridiculous numbers of people taking advantage of this program. For instance, I know someone who had plenty of money to rebuild bigger and better from insurance money, but somehow managed to get Road Home money that he just used to pay for his daughter’s wedding. What? How does that happen? And then consider that there are so many people who cannot be responsible for thousands of dollars in their pockets dedicated to go toward reconstruction of their homes. Another brilliant decision by our government–“Let’s just give everyone their Road Home money and too few stipulations.” Give a drunken homeless man $10 and watch him go buy his next drink. Irresponsibility is just that, and unfortunately it breeds more of the same.
Will Katrina happen again? Probably so. And by the way, the outcome will be the more of the same. People don’t change. You have those you are responsible and those who are not. Those who work hard and earn their lifestyles and those who take from everyone else. It’s just the way that it is.
So those of you who worked here, thank you for your tireless dedication. Insurance companies who didn’t pay what they should, well, that’s nothing new it happens in every catastrophe, but shame on you. Those insurance companies who did pay what you owed, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Those of you feeling sorry for the people who haven’t picked up the pieces, look harder–there are a lot of poor souls here, but there are many “Poor pitiful me” souls pulling the wool over a lot of people’s eyes. Katrina was a horrible thing, but this city will never die. People look at the destruction and filth appalled. This was a dirty city before and even with all of the newness that has come from the storm; just give it time–we’ll make it ugly too. Welcome to New Orleans.
Wait a second here: 99% of claims settled, most lawsuits no longer in contention, $40.6 billion dollars paid, 1.7 million claims. Sounds like overall the industry did a pretty decent job. Sure, there’s some whiners out there but if you take 1.7 million insurance claims (regardless of exposure) I’m sure you’ll find quite a few dissatisfied customers with very loud voices.
With a few mishandled claims exceptions – to be expected considering the magnitude of what had to be dealt with – the industry should be proud of what it accomplished given the nature and scope of the disaster.
Now, it’s 2-years later… it’s over. Quit your whinning and begging for handouts. Get to rebuilding your cities, your lives, and yourselves. No more Oliver Twists asking for more.
You’re cut off. We’re revoking your “Woe Is Me” membership card. We all face adversity in life. People in residential fires have lost everything and don’t take 2-years to rebuild or don’t need FEMA trailers. Get on with it.
You can stop patting yourself on the back also. What a joke. The vast majority of claims (probably over 90%) were simple wind to shingles and resulting water damage as far north as Memphis. Yes, it is very easy to get simple wind claims right, but State Farm and Nationwide got 100% of their claims of wind vs water wrong and yes there are still thousands of mishandled claims still out there. A better percentage comparision would be what percentage of the wind vs water claims were properly settled from the start and how many are settled now.
I am both glad and saddened at the same time for all of the people who were either misled or misinformed about insurance coverage in prone ares.
This is a huge problem and usually lies in th lap of the underwriter. Yes people chose to remove coverages from their policies because they can’t afford the costs but it all stems back to the point I made on where the money collected from Insurance Companies ends up.
I agree with pay for performance but again nobody[CEO,CFO] I know is worth 11.66 million in pay for a year.This money could be distributed to the victims of storms instead of turning to the government to bail out people.
Large insurance companies ahve reinsurance to bail their butts out if the losses they suffer exceed X amount of dollars so think about it.
Adjuster Joe you’ve got a following brother.Their are a lot of people sick and tired except the few that reap the financial gains from manipululating the data they have.
Maybe a better way of looking at the percetnage of closed is to compare how claims were handled when the insured had proper coverage (and I am specifically saying both Wind and Flood) verses when the insured only had Wind coverage.
I suspect that the people who had proper coverage had their claims settled much closer to their expectations and on a much quicker basis.
Okay… let’s start with your numbers. You say thousands… should we say that’s 3000? 4000? Let’s go 5000. That’s .3% of the total claim volume according to this article. A .3% defect rate on something of this magnitude is unfortunate but just about unavoidable unless companies flew over the catastophe area with the back door open on a C-130 and just pushed barrels of money out.
Most of the debate has centered around how much the company was responsible for paying on wind damage when the entire structure was a loss due to flooding. When the house isn’t there anymore the adjuster had to make the determination if wind pushed it off the foundation or if flood waters were responsible.
Thankfully the courts reasonably interpreted that a flood caused by levee failure is still a flood. Some debate centered around storm surge, yes. Was it wind driven water, thats a matter of interpretation.
As for 100%… that sounds highly unlikely. Where are you getting that figure from?
are still thousands of mishandled claims still out there. A better percentage comparision would be what percentage of the wind vs water claims were properly settled from the start and how many are settled now.
Call Michael Moore ask for help…. Maybe he will do a story about State Farm.
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I am tired like everyone else. Tired of the whining, tired of the insurance rates, tired of hearing the SF vs. Ins’d #4055. To me, here’s the bottom line.
People make choices in life, but unfortunately people are not trained to deal with the consequences when their choice turns out poorly. Case in point, underinsurance in the Gulf states and EVERYWHERE else!
I live in New Orleans and I ride around appalled at what I see. Here’s the catch. A lot of what is still bad was bad before, it’s just that people lived there then. A lot of people didn’t have insurance or not enough not because they did not have the money, but because they made a conscious decision NOT to buy it. And with the programs that have come about from the chaos caused by Katrina, WHY SHOULD THEY BUY IT FOR NEXT TIME? The system here is set up to protect those who make a choice to be irresponsible. Some people get up and go to work every day to earn a living to support their family with a decent lifestyle. We don’t all ask anyone for anything. We pay our bills and we have the best insurance we can buy. It is our choice to be responsible and there are a lot of our type out here.
Do you think that someone actually made up these New Orleans t-shirts that say things like, “I stayed for Katrina and all I got was FEMA money, a New Cadillac, and a plasma TV”? That really happened! The money is here. There is more money now than there ever has been before. FREE money to those who can prove that they did not have enough insurance money to pay for their damages. First of all, there are ridiculous numbers of people taking advantage of this program. For instance, I know someone who had plenty of money to rebuild bigger and better from insurance money, but somehow managed to get Road Home money that he just used to pay for his daughter’s wedding. What? How does that happen? And then consider that there are so many people who cannot be responsible for thousands of dollars in their pockets dedicated to go toward reconstruction of their homes. Another brilliant decision by our government–“Let’s just give everyone their Road Home money and too few stipulations.” Give a drunken homeless man $10 and watch him go buy his next drink. Irresponsibility is just that, and unfortunately it breeds more of the same.
Will Katrina happen again? Probably so. And by the way, the outcome will be the more of the same. People don’t change. You have those you are responsible and those who are not. Those who work hard and earn their lifestyles and those who take from everyone else. It’s just the way that it is.
So those of you who worked here, thank you for your tireless dedication. Insurance companies who didn’t pay what they should, well, that’s nothing new it happens in every catastrophe, but shame on you. Those insurance companies who did pay what you owed, well, that’s what you’re supposed to do. Those of you feeling sorry for the people who haven’t picked up the pieces, look harder–there are a lot of poor souls here, but there are many “Poor pitiful me” souls pulling the wool over a lot of people’s eyes. Katrina was a horrible thing, but this city will never die. People look at the destruction and filth appalled. This was a dirty city before and even with all of the newness that has come from the storm; just give it time–we’ll make it ugly too. Welcome to New Orleans.
Wait a second here: 99% of claims settled, most lawsuits no longer in contention, $40.6 billion dollars paid, 1.7 million claims. Sounds like overall the industry did a pretty decent job. Sure, there’s some whiners out there but if you take 1.7 million insurance claims (regardless of exposure) I’m sure you’ll find quite a few dissatisfied customers with very loud voices.
With a few mishandled claims exceptions – to be expected considering the magnitude of what had to be dealt with – the industry should be proud of what it accomplished given the nature and scope of the disaster.
Now, it’s 2-years later… it’s over. Quit your whinning and begging for handouts. Get to rebuilding your cities, your lives, and yourselves. No more Oliver Twists asking for more.
You’re cut off. We’re revoking your “Woe Is Me” membership card. We all face adversity in life. People in residential fires have lost everything and don’t take 2-years to rebuild or don’t need FEMA trailers. Get on with it.
You can stop patting yourself on the back also. What a joke. The vast majority of claims (probably over 90%) were simple wind to shingles and resulting water damage as far north as Memphis. Yes, it is very easy to get simple wind claims right, but State Farm and Nationwide got 100% of their claims of wind vs water wrong and yes there are still thousands of mishandled claims still out there. A better percentage comparision would be what percentage of the wind vs water claims were properly settled from the start and how many are settled now.
I am both glad and saddened at the same time for all of the people who were either misled or misinformed about insurance coverage in prone ares.
This is a huge problem and usually lies in th lap of the underwriter. Yes people chose to remove coverages from their policies because they can’t afford the costs but it all stems back to the point I made on where the money collected from Insurance Companies ends up.
I agree with pay for performance but again nobody[CEO,CFO] I know is worth 11.66 million in pay for a year.This money could be distributed to the victims of storms instead of turning to the government to bail out people.
Large insurance companies ahve reinsurance to bail their butts out if the losses they suffer exceed X amount of dollars so think about it.
Adjuster Joe you’ve got a following brother.Their are a lot of people sick and tired except the few that reap the financial gains from manipululating the data they have.
New Orleans should’ve stayed under water!
No that’s a time bomb waiting to go off.
Below sea level and they are rebuilding.Where’s the sanity?
Maybe a better way of looking at the percetnage of closed is to compare how claims were handled when the insured had proper coverage (and I am specifically saying both Wind and Flood) verses when the insured only had Wind coverage.
I suspect that the people who had proper coverage had their claims settled much closer to their expectations and on a much quicker basis.
Okay… let’s start with your numbers. You say thousands… should we say that’s 3000? 4000? Let’s go 5000. That’s .3% of the total claim volume according to this article. A .3% defect rate on something of this magnitude is unfortunate but just about unavoidable unless companies flew over the catastophe area with the back door open on a C-130 and just pushed barrels of money out.
Most of the debate has centered around how much the company was responsible for paying on wind damage when the entire structure was a loss due to flooding. When the house isn’t there anymore the adjuster had to make the determination if wind pushed it off the foundation or if flood waters were responsible.
Thankfully the courts reasonably interpreted that a flood caused by levee failure is still a flood. Some debate centered around storm surge, yes. Was it wind driven water, thats a matter of interpretation.
As for 100%… that sounds highly unlikely. Where are you getting that figure from?
are still thousands of mishandled claims still out there. A better percentage comparision would be what percentage of the wind vs water claims were properly settled from the start and how many are settled now.
Call Michael Moore ask for help…. Maybe he will do a story about State Farm.
Call Anita Lee at the Sun Herald ask her about State Farm. And see how great your personal jurisdiction is.
The only way Michael Moore would do a story is if it got him in the lime light.
Bottom line is that many people did not carry the proper insurance and unfortunately it came back to bite them.