I don’t want to be the one defending Insurance companies because seriously fuck them.
But… Please correct me if I got it wrong, but for the California fires they are accused of refusing to sell insurance policies or asking very high prizes for them, which is a very different thing than selling the policy and then denying and delaying payments after something has happened.
An insurance company saying they won’t insure you means that the risk is visibly and insanely high. Which it clearly was. If anything this should have been a pretty loud alarm bell that has been ignored.
Imagine one of your friends says “wanna bet I can beat you at arm wrestling?”.
Scenario 1: you look at them and they look more or less your size, so you bet $10. They win, but you say “wait, I wasn’t ready, let’s repeat”. They win again and you say “my elbow slipped, let’s go again”. They win for the third time, you say “you are cheating” and refuse to pay the bet.
You couldn’t blame them if they concluded that you’re full of it and didn’t want to be friends with you any longer.
Scenario 2: you see that your friend has biceps the size of your head. You laugh and say “no way man, not going to arm wrestle with you!”. You share a laugh and go get a beer.
You can think of Insurance as a morbid type of betting, where you don’t really want to win the bet, because it’s something like “hey, wanna bet that I don’t get killed in a car accident this year?” and the Insurance can decide to take the bet or not depending on what they estimate your odds of dying in a car crash.
If you want to bet on “wanna bet my house does not get destroyed by a fire this year” and no insurance company wants to take that bet, that’s a pretty bad sign, because they think the odds of a fire are way too high.
I don’t know how you feel about the ethical aspect of betting at all, but I think there’s a difference between them being unwilling to take your bet and them taking your bet but then refusing to pay you if you “win”.
I don’t want to be the one defending Insurance companies because seriously fuck them.
But… Please correct me if I got it wrong, but for the California fires they are accused of refusing to sell insurance policies or asking very high prizes for them, which is a very different thing than selling the policy and then denying and delaying payments after something has happened.
An insurance company saying they won’t insure you means that the risk is visibly and insanely high. Which it clearly was. If anything this should have been a pretty loud alarm bell that has been ignored.
What is the difference between refusing to renew a contract and refusing to pay the insurance claim from an “ethical” point of few?
Imagine one of your friends says “wanna bet I can beat you at arm wrestling?”.
Scenario 1: you look at them and they look more or less your size, so you bet $10. They win, but you say “wait, I wasn’t ready, let’s repeat”. They win again and you say “my elbow slipped, let’s go again”. They win for the third time, you say “you are cheating” and refuse to pay the bet. You couldn’t blame them if they concluded that you’re full of it and didn’t want to be friends with you any longer.
Scenario 2: you see that your friend has biceps the size of your head. You laugh and say “no way man, not going to arm wrestle with you!”. You share a laugh and go get a beer.
You can think of Insurance as a morbid type of betting, where you don’t really want to win the bet, because it’s something like “hey, wanna bet that I don’t get killed in a car accident this year?” and the Insurance can decide to take the bet or not depending on what they estimate your odds of dying in a car crash. If you want to bet on “wanna bet my house does not get destroyed by a fire this year” and no insurance company wants to take that bet, that’s a pretty bad sign, because they think the odds of a fire are way too high.
I don’t know how you feel about the ethical aspect of betting at all, but I think there’s a difference between them being unwilling to take your bet and them taking your bet but then refusing to pay you if you “win”.
If they refuse to play the claim, they are refusing to provide the service you have already paid them for.
If they refuse to renew a contract, they are not taking your money, and not agreeing to provide the service.