Hmmm….\”It was my agent who told me to drop the flood insurance as I would never need it!\”
Sounds like you got a good case against your agent. Why blame the insurance company (unless it was a captive agent like State Farm). As far as insurance goes, there\’s a concept called uninsurable risk, which is a risk so large that you can never have enough reserves for it. War, nuclear disaster, floods, famine, etc. all fall into this category. That\’s why we have the fedral flood program. I\’m sorry so many people told you not to use it, but I still can\’t see why that\’s the isurance company\’s fault.
When insurance companies post profits in the BILLIONS year after year (my \”good hands\” people regularly do), one has to assume they have the cash in reserve somewhere…And if not, how dare you all say we have our nerve asking for what we paid for. What are they doing with this money? Where is it?
I, for one, happen to know what \”re-assurance\” is. Most people are not aware that insurance companies actually have insurance on themselves to cover such castrophies!!!! Go figure. I bet they get all their money back, don\’t they?
Another point I find extremely ironic (and off on another tangent):
So many say they don\’t want God in their business, on their money, in their schools or courts, yet insurance companies are so quick to use \”Act of God\” to get out of paying. Oh, my, this tidal wave, hurricane, tornado, windstorm, whatever, is not under anyone\’s control. It was an act of God. So we shouldn\’t have to pay. Well, technically, dying of natural causes is an \”Act of God\”, so why do you pay on life insurance policies?
Yes, as a Christian, I believe this storm was an act of God, but as a taxpaying, law abiding, bills-paid-on-time type of person, I gotta ask again, what the heck is it exactly I am paying for?
And here\’s yet another twist: My brother had a good job and health insurance for himself and his family (for which he paid a huge premium out of pocket) pre-Katrina. Lost job due to business being wiped out, lost insurance, no money to pay the exhorborant COBRA premiums.
His wife got so sick last week from the staph infection she got from exposure to all this muck and filth, she is now in ICU fighting for her life. And he is worried sick not only over if she will survive, but that he will probably lose the home he rebuilt with is own hands to pay for the medical bills. Oh, yes, he had full HO insurance, too, and lived 43 FEET above sea level, 1 mile from the Gulf.
Again, I IMPLORE you that judge us to come see for yourselves. Did you see Extreme Home Special Edition last Thursday, or Trading Spaces the weekend before? That was but a smidgen of what is going on here and under what conditions we are living.
Another question-when we rented about 1/4 mile off the beach while building here, we were required to carry a special windstorm rider due to proximity to the water. Once we moved here, that was dropped from our policy as, again, we were told we were too far from the water and it was not a requirement. The insurance company automatically dropped it, not us or the agent. And wouldn\’t let us add it in due to location. hmmmm, still haven\’t figured that one out.
I\’m telling ya\’ll, you can shout till the cows come home, but us folks down here in Coastal Mississippi are in dire straits and need not only help from all the wonderful volunteers, but what is due to us by our insurance companies.
And by not paying NOW for the repairs, your actual assets are going down, too. These homes are being rebuilt by the owners and volunteers. A lot of them are experts at what they are doing, but a lot are just wonderful folks eager to help. So, sometimes the quality of work is not exactly professional. Which means the value of the homes are going to go down, which means premiums are going down based on replacement and tax value. Pay now or pay later, I guess.
Facts are facts.
Mississippi=Hurricane with unbelievable Tidal Wave. (Water in and out in about an hour.)
New Orleans=long-standing flood water due to weak and improperly maintained levees breaking. The majority of the city didn\’t get water until the day after the storm!
Peace out, ya\’ll. I am on my way to the hospital to see my deathly ill sister-in-law and pray she\’ll survive.
I sure hope your personal life improves. After your last few posts, your ravings about what you know little discredits your earlier arguments and I don\’t plan on reading your further posts because I think that if someone stood on a street corner handing out $10,000 checks, you\’d complain they weren\’t $20,000 checks. MOVE if you can\’t handle the hurricane heat \’cause the coming years will be worse , I\’m afraid. For the record, my agency (and Companies) helped ALOT of people hurt by the storm and I\’m PROUD of that.
Bitterness is self made, I believe.
Your veiled slur on my knowledge is ok.
We are used to it. And I am not bitter, just angry. And believe if one does not speak out against wrongdoings, one condones it with one\’s silence.
I DO NOT want someone to stand on the corner handing me a check and then complain about the amount. (You are confusing me with the system-sucking 4th generation public housing dwellers in New Orleans).
I only want that for which I paid.
Some more facts: Once we escaped (a long and very heroic son-in-law story) we called my carrier\’s main castastrophic phone number for 6 days and nights before getting through to a recording. Took THREE WEEKS to get a RESPONSE. Meanwhile, stuff sat in the back yard rotting because we were told to not throw anything out until the adjuster could see it. Adjuster came Oct. 17, SIX+ weeks after the storm.
First piddling little check arrived in late November.
I could go on and on telling my story (or complaining as you call it) but again, we are begging that you try to look at it from our standpoint. And again, come see for yourself. It is so easy to judge or state opinion from your comfortable armchair. It\’s a lot tougher to look the other way when you see and smell it for real.
As for living here, well, I\’ve lived here about 85% of my life. It\’s what we know. Been through some pretty bad storms dating all the way back to Betsy in \’65 and Camille in \’69. Dead center in the eye of the storms. And handled them just fine. You see, in the past there were the usual low-lying areas that did get water in hurricanes. It was a given. Those of us who did not get wet immediately went to assist those who did becasue that\’s just the way we South Mississippians are. But this time was different. 95% of our town got tidal surge, and in the town next to us, 99.5% did, including over 50% of the homes being totally destroyed. So no one could help anyone because no one had anything with which to help each other.
Heck, we think people who live in places that get regular winters full of snow and ice are crazy. And that folks in California are just one more earthquake away from falling off into the ocean.
So, read or not read. That, too, is your choice. As it is mine to continue writing.
God Bless!
dear mrs. lb i didn\’t mean to slur your trajedy. i wish you well in getting justice from a system that is imperfect at best. as i understand the named storm endorsement there is a ambiquity re. the water/flood damage. the companies claim the water/flood exclusion is in the policy that overrides the endorsement. the courts will determine the actual coverage. again, i wish you well,and all the victims of this trajedy.
Again, I\’m sorry for what you\’re going through, and you have my condolences. I have been to New Orleans, about 10 days ago, and there is still a lot to be done. There is no doubt your circumstances are difficult.
However, I do have an issue with your blaming the insurance industry for what appear to be your own decisions. You may have gotten bad advice from your agent, but I find it hard to believe an insurance company would automatically drop a coverage (aren\’t insurance companies out there to INCREASE premiums, thereby make more money?), but don\’t you bear some responsibility for your own actions? I have flood coverage on my homeowners\’ policy even though it isn\’t required, because I think the peace of mind provided are worth the money. I also have mugh higher than statutory limits on my auto coverage, again which costs me more in premiums, but gives me greater protection.
To me, you sound like someone who decided to save a couple bucks by reducing your insurance coverage, and are now upset that you don\’t have the coverage you gave up. You could have purchased all sorts of coverage that would have protected you now – the insurance companies would have been happy to sell it to you, but you chose not to in order to save money. Ok, that\’s your choice. However, after making that choice, please don\’t rant that you\’re just \”asking for what we paid for.\” GUess what? It sounds to me like you\’re asking for something that you COULD have paid for, but chose not to. I\’d like a new car, but unless I pay for it, I don\’t think I should be entitield to it. Call me crazy, but why should insurance be any different?
I\’m sorry you made that decision, but I have a hard time with you using your own behavior in an attack on an industry which provides financial security to so many people, and for the most part is made up of hard working, dedicated people trying to do the right thing. If you actually sit down and get the facts, you\’ll realize the property-casualty insurance industry isn\’t all that profitable – it\’s return on equity is actually pretty poor, about 6%, compared to an average for the S&P of around 15% (http://www.bizstats.com/corpgp2001.htm). Individuals may be making a lot of money (as in any industry), but the industry as a whole does not. Check out dentists, doctors and lawyers for some very profitable industry segments.
As far as the COBRA/medical issue you have, did you ever ask why it is so expensive? Coudl it have something to do with the cost of medical care, as opposed to insurers making obscene profits?
Also, \”act of God\” is a legal term of art used in the industry to define a class of risks, risks that either defy statistical prediction or are so expansive in their impact that they cannot be priced (and so are excluded). It is not a comment on religion, other than in its origins.
Regarding reisurance, yes, primary insurers get reinsurance, but they have to pay for it, and they usually only reinsure PART of the risk exposure. And they can only reinsure the exposures that they have resulting from people paying premium. At least one, and potentially several more reinsurance companies were wiped out by Katrina. In addition, the P&C reinsurance industry as a whole will post yet another year of net losses. To make this up, they will have to raise rates, since they have paid out more in claims than they recieved in premiums for several years. That doesn\’t sound like they\’re making a whole ton of money to me.
Insurance is not some magic moneymaker scheme – it defers and aggregates risk, it doesn\’t eliminate it. If there isn\’t premium to support paying claims, then those claims can\’t get paid. And if the claims are expensive, the premiums will be expensive too. You can\’t get around finance and math – 1+1=2, even if you want it to equal 3.
Again, I\’m sorry for your circumstance, but I feel there are times when individuals need to accept their responsibility for their choices, and not look for scapegoats and deep pockets to rescue them from their own bad decisions. In my view, Scruggs is relying on having people like you in the jury, so he can make a bundle of cash by usuing their (and your) unwillingness to ask individuals to accept responsibility for their choices.
If you learn more about how insurance companies work, and the financial reality in which they operate, you might have a better idea of why things are happening they way they are happening in your neck of the woods. But I suppose it\’s easier to just call them evil and blame them for your situation than to try to understand.
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Hmmm….\”It was my agent who told me to drop the flood insurance as I would never need it!\”
Sounds like you got a good case against your agent. Why blame the insurance company (unless it was a captive agent like State Farm). As far as insurance goes, there\’s a concept called uninsurable risk, which is a risk so large that you can never have enough reserves for it. War, nuclear disaster, floods, famine, etc. all fall into this category. That\’s why we have the fedral flood program. I\’m sorry so many people told you not to use it, but I still can\’t see why that\’s the isurance company\’s fault.
you have a case. the finale interpretation of insurance vocabulary will be up the courts. i wish you well.
Flood is rising water. A tidal wave is water rising out of the ocean, isn\’t it?
When insurance companies post profits in the BILLIONS year after year (my \”good hands\” people regularly do), one has to assume they have the cash in reserve somewhere…And if not, how dare you all say we have our nerve asking for what we paid for. What are they doing with this money? Where is it?
I, for one, happen to know what \”re-assurance\” is. Most people are not aware that insurance companies actually have insurance on themselves to cover such castrophies!!!! Go figure. I bet they get all their money back, don\’t they?
Another point I find extremely ironic (and off on another tangent):
So many say they don\’t want God in their business, on their money, in their schools or courts, yet insurance companies are so quick to use \”Act of God\” to get out of paying. Oh, my, this tidal wave, hurricane, tornado, windstorm, whatever, is not under anyone\’s control. It was an act of God. So we shouldn\’t have to pay. Well, technically, dying of natural causes is an \”Act of God\”, so why do you pay on life insurance policies?
Yes, as a Christian, I believe this storm was an act of God, but as a taxpaying, law abiding, bills-paid-on-time type of person, I gotta ask again, what the heck is it exactly I am paying for?
And here\’s yet another twist: My brother had a good job and health insurance for himself and his family (for which he paid a huge premium out of pocket) pre-Katrina. Lost job due to business being wiped out, lost insurance, no money to pay the exhorborant COBRA premiums.
His wife got so sick last week from the staph infection she got from exposure to all this muck and filth, she is now in ICU fighting for her life. And he is worried sick not only over if she will survive, but that he will probably lose the home he rebuilt with is own hands to pay for the medical bills. Oh, yes, he had full HO insurance, too, and lived 43 FEET above sea level, 1 mile from the Gulf.
Again, I IMPLORE you that judge us to come see for yourselves. Did you see Extreme Home Special Edition last Thursday, or Trading Spaces the weekend before? That was but a smidgen of what is going on here and under what conditions we are living.
Another question-when we rented about 1/4 mile off the beach while building here, we were required to carry a special windstorm rider due to proximity to the water. Once we moved here, that was dropped from our policy as, again, we were told we were too far from the water and it was not a requirement. The insurance company automatically dropped it, not us or the agent. And wouldn\’t let us add it in due to location. hmmmm, still haven\’t figured that one out.
I\’m telling ya\’ll, you can shout till the cows come home, but us folks down here in Coastal Mississippi are in dire straits and need not only help from all the wonderful volunteers, but what is due to us by our insurance companies.
And by not paying NOW for the repairs, your actual assets are going down, too. These homes are being rebuilt by the owners and volunteers. A lot of them are experts at what they are doing, but a lot are just wonderful folks eager to help. So, sometimes the quality of work is not exactly professional. Which means the value of the homes are going to go down, which means premiums are going down based on replacement and tax value. Pay now or pay later, I guess.
Facts are facts.
Mississippi=Hurricane with unbelievable Tidal Wave. (Water in and out in about an hour.)
New Orleans=long-standing flood water due to weak and improperly maintained levees breaking. The majority of the city didn\’t get water until the day after the storm!
Peace out, ya\’ll. I am on my way to the hospital to see my deathly ill sister-in-law and pray she\’ll survive.
I urge you all to check this website on a regular basis and see what it is we contend with on a daily basis.
You will be amazed…and appalled :(
http://www.gulfcoastnews.com
I dare you
I sure hope your personal life improves. After your last few posts, your ravings about what you know little discredits your earlier arguments and I don\’t plan on reading your further posts because I think that if someone stood on a street corner handing out $10,000 checks, you\’d complain they weren\’t $20,000 checks. MOVE if you can\’t handle the hurricane heat \’cause the coming years will be worse , I\’m afraid. For the record, my agency (and Companies) helped ALOT of people hurt by the storm and I\’m PROUD of that.
Bitterness is self made, I believe.
dear mrs. lb, you go girl!
Your veiled slur on my knowledge is ok.
We are used to it. And I am not bitter, just angry. And believe if one does not speak out against wrongdoings, one condones it with one\’s silence.
I DO NOT want someone to stand on the corner handing me a check and then complain about the amount. (You are confusing me with the system-sucking 4th generation public housing dwellers in New Orleans).
I only want that for which I paid.
Some more facts: Once we escaped (a long and very heroic son-in-law story) we called my carrier\’s main castastrophic phone number for 6 days and nights before getting through to a recording. Took THREE WEEKS to get a RESPONSE. Meanwhile, stuff sat in the back yard rotting because we were told to not throw anything out until the adjuster could see it. Adjuster came Oct. 17, SIX+ weeks after the storm.
First piddling little check arrived in late November.
I could go on and on telling my story (or complaining as you call it) but again, we are begging that you try to look at it from our standpoint. And again, come see for yourself. It is so easy to judge or state opinion from your comfortable armchair. It\’s a lot tougher to look the other way when you see and smell it for real.
As for living here, well, I\’ve lived here about 85% of my life. It\’s what we know. Been through some pretty bad storms dating all the way back to Betsy in \’65 and Camille in \’69. Dead center in the eye of the storms. And handled them just fine. You see, in the past there were the usual low-lying areas that did get water in hurricanes. It was a given. Those of us who did not get wet immediately went to assist those who did becasue that\’s just the way we South Mississippians are. But this time was different. 95% of our town got tidal surge, and in the town next to us, 99.5% did, including over 50% of the homes being totally destroyed. So no one could help anyone because no one had anything with which to help each other.
Heck, we think people who live in places that get regular winters full of snow and ice are crazy. And that folks in California are just one more earthquake away from falling off into the ocean.
So, read or not read. That, too, is your choice. As it is mine to continue writing.
God Bless!
dear mrs. lb i didn\’t mean to slur your trajedy. i wish you well in getting justice from a system that is imperfect at best. as i understand the named storm endorsement there is a ambiquity re. the water/flood damage. the companies claim the water/flood exclusion is in the policy that overrides the endorsement. the courts will determine the actual coverage. again, i wish you well,and all the victims of this trajedy.
Ms. LB –
Again, I\’m sorry for what you\’re going through, and you have my condolences. I have been to New Orleans, about 10 days ago, and there is still a lot to be done. There is no doubt your circumstances are difficult.
However, I do have an issue with your blaming the insurance industry for what appear to be your own decisions. You may have gotten bad advice from your agent, but I find it hard to believe an insurance company would automatically drop a coverage (aren\’t insurance companies out there to INCREASE premiums, thereby make more money?), but don\’t you bear some responsibility for your own actions? I have flood coverage on my homeowners\’ policy even though it isn\’t required, because I think the peace of mind provided are worth the money. I also have mugh higher than statutory limits on my auto coverage, again which costs me more in premiums, but gives me greater protection.
To me, you sound like someone who decided to save a couple bucks by reducing your insurance coverage, and are now upset that you don\’t have the coverage you gave up. You could have purchased all sorts of coverage that would have protected you now – the insurance companies would have been happy to sell it to you, but you chose not to in order to save money. Ok, that\’s your choice. However, after making that choice, please don\’t rant that you\’re just \”asking for what we paid for.\” GUess what? It sounds to me like you\’re asking for something that you COULD have paid for, but chose not to. I\’d like a new car, but unless I pay for it, I don\’t think I should be entitield to it. Call me crazy, but why should insurance be any different?
I\’m sorry you made that decision, but I have a hard time with you using your own behavior in an attack on an industry which provides financial security to so many people, and for the most part is made up of hard working, dedicated people trying to do the right thing. If you actually sit down and get the facts, you\’ll realize the property-casualty insurance industry isn\’t all that profitable – it\’s return on equity is actually pretty poor, about 6%, compared to an average for the S&P of around 15% (http://www.bizstats.com/corpgp2001.htm). Individuals may be making a lot of money (as in any industry), but the industry as a whole does not. Check out dentists, doctors and lawyers for some very profitable industry segments.
As far as the COBRA/medical issue you have, did you ever ask why it is so expensive? Coudl it have something to do with the cost of medical care, as opposed to insurers making obscene profits?
Also, \”act of God\” is a legal term of art used in the industry to define a class of risks, risks that either defy statistical prediction or are so expansive in their impact that they cannot be priced (and so are excluded). It is not a comment on religion, other than in its origins.
Regarding reisurance, yes, primary insurers get reinsurance, but they have to pay for it, and they usually only reinsure PART of the risk exposure. And they can only reinsure the exposures that they have resulting from people paying premium. At least one, and potentially several more reinsurance companies were wiped out by Katrina. In addition, the P&C reinsurance industry as a whole will post yet another year of net losses. To make this up, they will have to raise rates, since they have paid out more in claims than they recieved in premiums for several years. That doesn\’t sound like they\’re making a whole ton of money to me.
Insurance is not some magic moneymaker scheme – it defers and aggregates risk, it doesn\’t eliminate it. If there isn\’t premium to support paying claims, then those claims can\’t get paid. And if the claims are expensive, the premiums will be expensive too. You can\’t get around finance and math – 1+1=2, even if you want it to equal 3.
Again, I\’m sorry for your circumstance, but I feel there are times when individuals need to accept their responsibility for their choices, and not look for scapegoats and deep pockets to rescue them from their own bad decisions. In my view, Scruggs is relying on having people like you in the jury, so he can make a bundle of cash by usuing their (and your) unwillingness to ask individuals to accept responsibility for their choices.
If you learn more about how insurance companies work, and the financial reality in which they operate, you might have a better idea of why things are happening they way they are happening in your neck of the woods. But I suppose it\’s easier to just call them evil and blame them for your situation than to try to understand.