Imagine if your neighbor chose one insurance plan that cost them more over the last five years based on a flat, consistent premium of $100/month.
You chose a different plan with a variable premium and only paid an average of $25/month for the last five years.
Then the insurance company sends you a bill for $1,500 after it refused to pay the claim you filed last month.
Yeah, you should feel totally justified in refusing to pay the bill. If the company wasn’t there for you when you really needed it, then your next bill should be $0.
Ok, that’s an interesting take on this. “I’ll pay extra, whatever it costs to keep the lights on. If the lights go off, it’s no deal.”
Seems like their power had to be on for them to run up those bills. So how did the company not hold up their end of the bargain? As long as those people had the ability to run up a bill, they had the ability to check the current rates and use less when it was expensive — exactly the purpose of the cheaper plan they signed up for.
So another version of your tale might be:
Imagine if you chose one insurance plan that cost more over the last five years based on a flat, consistent premium of $100/month.
Your neighbor chose a different plan with a variable premium and only paid an average of $25/month for the last five years (saving him $4500 over 5 years).
You and your neighbor both filed claims after an event. Your claim was denied while your neighbor’s claim was honored.
Your neighbor came crying to you that the insurance company was cheating him because it insisted on taking off $1,500 from his claim, for the deductible that was listed on his policy.
Dumb analogy. The Griddy customers only got big bills if they didn’t lose power.