Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Auto Insurance Robbery

For the past couple of years, every time my auto insurance is due for renewal the price increases substantially even though I have never had a claim and the vehicles have not changed. The last time
I renewed I commented that the price had gone up a lot more than I expected. Another agent was within earshot and she said, "Yeah and it's going to keep going up. We have a lot of complaints about that."

I am not for government regulation of private business, but when the insurance companies get mandatory insurance laws passed, they should not be able to charge whatever they want or exclude certain kinds of cars. There is talk - I don't know how accurate - of insurance companies refusing to insure internal combustion engine cars in the not too distant future. This creates a situation where insurance companies have veto power of what kind of vehicles are allowed. It has nothing to do with safety, but policy.
You shall drive an electric car or not drive at all since you have to have insurance to legally drive the car.

It seems that the only solution, or the most obvious one is to return to "freedom of choice in insurance." If the "customer" is not required to purchase the service, the vendor will have to compete to gain the customer. If the insurance or lack thereof is the decision of the car owner the vendor can charge whatever they want. If the system is rigged so that everybody who wants to drive has to purchase a policy it should be regulated. This is not regulating a private entity since the company has colluded with government to require the purchase of its service.

I can't see any other remedy for runaway price increases. It's either charge what you want in a free market or have set rates in a compulsory market.

On a totally different note, I have thought for several years that government vehicles should all have to be painted in high-visibility colors over most of their external surface, excluding the roof. Government vehicles, whether owned by government or leased, borrowed, rented or otherwise acquired should be required to be painted a high-visibility color over 60% of its surface. This would prevent police from driving around in cars that border on unmarked. It would also make everybody aware of how many vehicles government has if staff cars that presently have no markings were blaze orange or safety yellow. It would also help to protect the chilllllldren by keeping them from not seeing the oncoming garbage truck. If it only saves one life....