What is Insurance Anyway?
By shewolf52002
@shewolf52002 (1214)
United States
September 15, 2009 1:33am CST
One time I heard life insurance called a gamble, you are betting you are going to die and the insurance company is betting you wont... at least not anytime soon! And if you are going to die anytime soon they jack the rates up. Same with car insurance! So my question is this isnt health insurance just betting you are going to get sick? Now I know there are unplanned catestrophic illnesses such as cancer which no one would deny that insurance would be very helpful with, however have you ever stopped to consider the price of insurance and the fact that if you do NOT use it you will never see that money again?
I called about a private plan the other day and for my family it was around $300 a month, of course I could not be covered because of my weight but that is another discussion, but I got to thinking about it if we put that money in an interest bearing account within a few years we could cover a good deal of medical costs... and if by not having insurance I lost weight and my husband quit smoking to improve our health and further reduce the risk of needing to see a doctor wouldnt we be better off? At least then if we died after a long life with no major illness our kids would have the "insurance premiums" we had saved?
What do you think?
I called about a private plan the other day and for my family it was around $300 a month, of course I could not be covered because of my weight but that is another discussion, but I got to thinking about it if we put that money in an interest bearing account within a few years we could cover a good deal of medical costs... and if by not having insurance I lost weight and my husband quit smoking to improve our health and further reduce the risk of needing to see a doctor wouldnt we be better off? At least then if we died after a long life with no major illness our kids would have the "insurance premiums" we had saved?
What do you think?1 person likes this
6 responses
@Arkie69 (2156)
• United States
15 Sep 09
I agree with you 100%. Insurance of any kind is a rip off big time. Auto and home insurance especially. Lets say you buy a new car and go buy insurance on it for the amount of the value of the car the day you insurer nit. After that you still pay the same amount for as long as you own the car but every day your car looses value. Then you have a wreck and your insurance totals your car. Are they going to pay you the amount you have been paying insurance on? No way. They are going to reach for their blue book and see what you car is worth on the market today. Did they lower the cost of your insurance as your car declined in value? No they didn't and they are not about to. The only way to get a lower rate is to change insurance co and insure your car for it's true value.
Art
2 people like this
@shewolf52002 (1214)
• United States
15 Sep 09
O man do not even get me started on mandatory car insurance! I spent hundreds of dollars per month for liability and never had an accident! I think they owe me some of that hard earned money back. It ticks me off to be forced to purchase something I will probably never need with no chance of my money coming back to me. And you are right about full coverage... though I had never thought about it like that before.
@strikezero86 (246)
• Canada
15 Sep 09
For health insurance, it's essentially a "just in case" type of scenarios. Just in case you get into a major accident, you'll have the insurance to cover it. You never know what can happen and that's why people get the insurance. But your way is an interesting way of handling of those types of scenarios. If you think you can stay relatively healthy for the rest of your life and just be a little extra precautious, I'd say go for it. I think that's a good way to save money.
2 people like this
@Bluepatch (2476)
• Trinidad And Tobago
15 Sep 09
Insurance is really the pooling of resources to take care of those who have emergencies they cannot afford.
The theory is that if the insurance company invests the money wisely they'll make a profit and everybody will benefit.
The problem is those insurance companies where the owners or management gamble with depositors' funds.
Like they did here in Trinidad with CLICO and now everyone who had money there is in trouble and because they are in with the government nobody is going anywhere near a court.
@shewolf52002 (1214)
• United States
15 Sep 09
Which kind of leads me to believe that if a person was wise, they could invest carefully their own "insurance premium" and not have to worry about corporate mishandling so to speak.
@gitfiddleplayer (10362)
• United States
15 Sep 09
You should look at life insurance as income replacement, generally the husband is the bread winner and if he passes then that income that would steadily stream in would be interupted and life insurance would speed up the lost income, based on year to year income. If the woman is the bread winner its the same. Health insurance is supposed to be preventative and not as a replacement for health. You could take the money that it cost to insure yourself but who does that, its easier to allow somebody else to insure you, this is where private insurance is so much better. Ask the government (under Obama) if you can be overweight or smoke or participate in eating potato chips once their plan goes into effect, I'm betting not because they want to regulate what you do, not what happens to you, that would be your fault. There are medical spending accounts through employers, you pay in and if you don't use it you can get it back.
@shewolf52002 (1214)
• United States
15 Sep 09
I do kind of get the life insurance premise, and it is a good thing as long as you do not miss a payment. You can bet they will not return your investment to you if you are no longer covered under their plan. I know there are a few exceptions such as insurance policies that you can actually cash out.
Not even interested in the Obama plan... hoping the current bills fail miserably! There has to be a better way than Government run everything.
@shankarbaddi (785)
• India
15 Sep 09
Insurance means the insurer insures his/her life, property, building, stock etc. which is materialistic in nature or which relates to life. Nowadays we have many different insurance companies that are coming up with different plans like the Jeevan suraksha, endowment plan, ULIP[unit linked insurance plan], general insurance, life insurance, vehicle insurance and more types. Many foreign countries are tieing up with the various different countries. Nowadays we can also notice that if we wish to take a loan it is necessary that we must have an insurance of what we are taking the loan. Insurance benefits person in many ways, it helps people to save for the future, lead a simple and comfortable life in the future.
If we have health insurance or life insurance then we can get money to get our self operated. Hence i suggest friends to get your self or your property insured so that you need not to get tensed for the loss incurred.
1 person likes this
@sblossom (2168)
•
15 Sep 09
To me I don’t trust insurance any more. From my experiences and other friends experience I think insurance is a cheating game. Before you drop in the agent will tell you how huge profit you will get from their promise, but one day if you really claim it you will find it’s very difficult to get your right on.
I think if it’s not the law’s request I would ignore any insurance. My husband is an insurance mania. We bought a TV set that was cost £300, but he bought insurance for it and we should pay £4 per month. At last I pushed him to cancel.
However I should agree people have different life style and behaviour style. To many people insurance is a very important part in life, but I need time to adjust my idea.
1 person likes this
