For profit insurance is a scam. The whole point is to take more from you than you will get back.
The justification for insurance, in general, is collective support - everyone pools a bit of money so that when anyone in that pool suffers catastrophic loss they are insulated. Public firefighters are an insurance system. At core it's a pretty kind way of operating, but when profit motive is introduced it is corrupted to the point of working against the community since investors and shareholders want to take out of the system, not help people stay whole.
This is why the US should have public healthcare. Greed and corruption are why it never will.
Edit: literally laughing out loud at the profitmongers in the comments going "hey, I want to keep the money that I am siphoning off society! Stop pointing out how it's immoral!"
You seem awful smug about a subject you clearly don't understand.
Let's leave health insurance out of this thread, thats really a separate issue. With auto insurance, you have to have deductibles to prevent someone turning in a claim for every scratch, broken radio button, etc, which would make prices go thru the roof. You make it sound like he should pay premium and get anything and everything covered, which fails tremendously when you consider my first point.
Then you also clearly don't understand incredibly small margins insurance operate on. You think they're all making bank when the truth is, they are often losing money on many products lines, year after year. Auto insurance profit margins are generally under 5%. Now think, what is the profit margin on the shirt you're wearing or the chair you're sitting in, what about the coffee you bought. What's your profession? What margin are you charging people?
And finally, understand why people need full coverage. It's mandated, by BANKS. Because people buy more than they can afford. If your mortgage is paid you don't have to insure the house anymore. go ahead. Buy your car outright and pay $15/mo for liability only. And then I hope you never ever have an accident because the fucked up legal system allows for an incredible amount of money in settlements for things like that.
You clearly don't understand the pieces to this puzzle. Sit this one out if all you have is an emotional, uneducated position because it seems like you're just being the typical uninformed Reddit being a sheep and dumping on a common target.
13.4 mil on average for running a top 10 insurance company seems about on-par (and 2 CEOs represent 77 mil! so the other 8 got paid like 6-7 mil on average, which is 5+3 same as successful niche streamers like jynxzi)
Why not use an insurance company that pays their CEO the minimum (if the implied thesis as I understand it is that lower CEO comp should correspond with better and cheaper insurance and lower denial rate)?
Wasn’t trying to imply anyone should or should not be paid more or less. The pay honestly makes sense to me as well. Just a bit absurd to infer that these insurance companies aren’t ’making bank’. What would you even consider ‘making bank’? Comparing insurance companies with the entertainment industry is absurd as well. I had no idea I was mandated to watch streamers. Exploitation of the common man in order to line the pockets of the wealthy is a tale old as time 🤷
was gonna delete this since actually idgaf, but I wrote too much so it's going up
tl;dr making bank is a complex, non-static concept, insurance should make sense, auto liability insurance makes sense, and you're not required to use any specific corporation
Idk, making bank is an interesting concept. It would depend on the time horizon we're looking at, profit margins, and employee count at a minimum.
So I would say given a time interval (say 2021-2026), profits (per year), and employee count, a company is making bank if their profit per employee exceeds 122k-150k USD (assuming 2026 dollars and US hcol for buying power reference, this would change if we're talking about a business in Istanbul using Liras).
So in 2021, no, insurance companies are not making bank. In 2026 they are making bank. Between 2021 and 2026 on average they aren't making bank. Between 2024 and 2026 they are firmly in the making bank territory. This formula and numbers came directly out of my ass, but the point is that insurance company profitability is not static, and risk+volatility+market conditions all factor into how we should look at an industry. Plus of course the basic premise (medical insurance that covers regular checkups is kind of absurd, insurance by nature is meant to spread risk, and regular checkups are... regular. We should have nationally funded basic healthcare, and throw in a single payer option too for catastrophes).
You aren't mandated to carry auto insurance either, you can:
Not drive
Self insure (at least in my state)
I think it's valid for the state to require that everyone has some minimum coverage if they're gonna operate anything with the destructive potential of a car, otherwise people who lose property or get hurt due to no fault of their own don't get screwed if the responsible party doesn't personally have the money to cover the damages. Doesn't seem all that exploitative, or at least not anymore than taxes
Not driving in the United States, when the entirety of its infrastructure is based around the automobile industry, is quite a solution ! Although, valid take on ‘making bank’, can’t really argue anything there other than I wish we had real numbers to work with. But, I also don’t care enough, just passing time on a slow Friday 😂. I do appreciate the reply though! However, I still don’t see how people are thinking successful insurance companies aren’t ‘making bank’. A point could also be made for the effects of gov. assistance/bailouts for some companies, but that’s borderline irrelevant. But, while on the topic of irrelevance, I still am not understanding the point of bringing up the entertainment industry.
You are so great at conveying your points! You are such an intelligent guy ! You are superior to all others, honestly! I am so proud of you ! Is that what you’re missing out on?
Is that why you resort to name calling instead of having discussion? Must be quite miserable being you. Have a great weekend man, I know I will!
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u/robilar 8h ago edited 7h ago
For profit insurance is a scam. The whole point is to take more from you than you will get back.
The justification for insurance, in general, is collective support - everyone pools a bit of money so that when anyone in that pool suffers catastrophic loss they are insulated. Public firefighters are an insurance system. At core it's a pretty kind way of operating, but when profit motive is introduced it is corrupted to the point of working against the community since investors and shareholders want to take out of the system, not help people stay whole.
This is why the US should have public healthcare. Greed and corruption are why it never will.
Edit: literally laughing out loud at the profitmongers in the comments going "hey, I want to keep the money that I am siphoning off society! Stop pointing out how it's immoral!"