Most of the uninformed nimrods who bellow and squeal about the huge "profits" made by the insurance companies are totally clueless re: the fact that almost NO company (Erie insurance being a big exception) makes money on "underwriting." That is, the money paid in on premiums is NOT more than the money paid out on claims, or at least it is not substantially more, in almost every company in America. Once you figure out HOW they can make money in a "neutral" or slightly negative cash flow situation, THEN you have a right to an opinion. Until then, it is just ignorant dithyrambs.
Homeowners premiums in Florida have subsidized a grand total of almost 60% of the losses in Florida over the past three years. Several years ago, Allstate (the number two insuror in the USA at the time) almost went broke over Hurrican Fredrick.
Cretins who bark out about the "obscene profits" of insurance companies, oil companies, or whatever are not "conservatives" at all. They remind me of the intellectual detritus you normally find at a Ross Perot rally. They are secure and impregnable in their ignorance, and hostile to the market itself. The fact is, Florida is a RISKY state to build a home in, because of the weather patterns and its proximity to storm sources (the ocean and the gulf). Homeowners insurance is EXPENSIVE, if the companies writing it don't go broke, yet the rates are set in collusion with some airhead bureaucrat (usually elected, but always a political post)who sets a cap on the rates the companies can offer. If the market has its way, IT WILL PRICE SOME PEOPLE OUT OF THE MARKET. But the state insurance agencies have rigged the market so that there is a cap. Therefore "everyone can afford it." Except the companies offering it, that is. Companies prefer (strange as it may seem) not to commit fiscal suicide, and pull out. The state, in a Stalinist fit of righteous indignation, has decided that if a company decides it cannot make money in the HOUSING market, then the CONSUMER should suffer by reducing the number of bidders for lower AUTO rates. That'll teach em!!!
Absolutely freaking brilliant. Should resonate well with the dyspeptic loons over at DU..., and of course their mirror images over here. Whatever happened to the idea that the market corrects its own excesses? Isn't that sort of, uh, "conservative" or something?
ok defend the insurance companies
ok defend the insurance companies, you must work for one
I doubt they had blue tarps on their roofs.
Insurers' trick: profit amid cries of poverty:
http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/sptimes/access/1191337521.html?
Gouging is not a conservative value, either. It's like the @sshats that sell water for $20 a bottle after a storm. They are scum.