December 16th, 2009 → 6:58 pm @ admin // 5 Comments
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1391547/insurance_companies_why_people_hate.html?cat=3
The article above describes why people hate insurance companies. Why do you think that people dislike insurance companies?
Anonymous
2 years ago
I think it’s a fundamental ignorance of what they do, what the product is, and how they work.
Most people hate insurance companies for three basic reasons:
1. they can’t get an insurance company to sell them a product at a price they want to pay
2. they lied to an insurance company and it came back and bit them in the rear.
3. they believe insurance is a way to MAKE MONEY – ie, come out ahead. They think of claims as a way to “get their money’s worth”.
Unfortunately, the only answer to this, is education – and these same people STRONGLY don’t want to be educated about insurance.
**See, Mike up there exemplifies both #1 and #3. You’ll here the #2 people, when they complain about a claim being denied.**
Maccherone Pazzo
2 years ago
Many will hate them for the same reason that they also hate Bill Gates, Credit Card companies, bayliffs and anyone that asks for their money once they have provided a service/lent them money.
They are essentially comunists at heart, but they never live in comunist countries.
Insurance Pickle.com
2 years ago
Lack of knowledge and not using an insurance broker when they purchased it or had an issue arise. I had a guy just tell me last night that he cancelled his policy and fired off a nasty letter to the insurance company, blah, blah, blah. When I ask why he disregarded the ‘please contact me first” message I put in the e-mail he said he didn’t want to bother me. Duh! I could’ve fixed it with one phone call and saved him tons of aggravation. People just don’t get it and it’s not like I didn’t follow up with him to make sure everything was working well.
So, we’re finding him a new policy now and NOW he knows he’d better call if there are issues. I have thousands of clients and I’ve had issues that were the isurance company’s fault that could fit on one hand. Only one of those do I still feel that the insurance company is still to blame and I haven’t sold a policy with that company since. It wasn’t a big deal, but it was handled very poorly.
rcdrury
2 years ago
I frankly don’t know. Insurance companies have never contributed anything but positives to society. Of course, most of the gripes are with health insurers. People don’t like paying ever-increasing premiums, and who could blame them. If it were only that simple.
Insurers have to walk a tightrope between affording various levels of risk, and competition from other insurers. I dare say there is no more competitive industry out there. While it may not seem like it, premiums are trimmed to the bone.
All insurers fulfill the letter of their contracts ALL the time. The only time they are accused otherwise is when a policy holder is unhappy with the provisions. Maybe that individual should have read the details of the coverage before accepting it. As far as things like preexisting conditions and such, one must consider that the insurance company is a business, and one cannot expect a responsible business to intentionally make irresponsible business decisions. If your insurer makes a habit of insuring unacceptable risks, soon that company will no longer exist.
Mike
2 years ago
It is the system that is broken.
In my case, I had health insurance for about 35 years and received less than 10% in health benefits as compared to the premiums paid. Then when I was 56 years old, I started to suffer from chronic fatigue and quit my job. I went on Cobra and paid about $220 per month for very good benefits but still did not receive benefits that exceeded the premiums paid (having tests to try to determine what was wrong but nothing was found).
After 18 months, Cobra ran out and I applied for health insurance. Blue Cross turned me down for insurance stating that I was in a high risk category but would offer me a high risk plan (required by law but the law didn’t restrict what they would cover and the cost of the plan). The plan offered would cost $600 per month, have a $10,000 deductible, a 30% co-pay after the deductible, and no drug benefit. If I took the plan, I would have to pay over $17,000 during the year before I received any benefits and over $40,000 before I would break even though I had never had over $2,000 in health insurance costs during any year previously or since.
Fortunately in 1996, congress passed a VA health bill that I qualified for so I was very fortunate since I got VA health insurance for free. In 2003 the republicans eliminated the VA health benfits but grandfathered in the benefits for those veterans that had signed up before the change. The only way that I knew that I was eligible for VA health coverage was that I checked the VA site and found out that a law was passed that would cover me. I’m sure there are millions of veterans that didn’t know and never signed up and now it is too late and they may have health problems.
Now I have a brother that had a heart attack/stroke about a year ago at age 55. After the stroke, he went back to work but was later laid off. If he doesn’t find a job before his Cobra insurance runs out, he will have to look for insurance on the open market. I’m sure the cost will be so expensive that he will either take it and file bankruptcy by the time he is 65 or not take it and file bankruptcy if he should happen to end up in the hospital again. Neither is a very good choice.
With the current system, anybody or one of their relatives (father, mother, brother, sister, or child) could and will probably end up in a similar situation during their lifetime.
Since the chances are so high that you or a relative will be in that situation, it makes people wonder whether it is worth it to try to save for retirement since a job loss in your 50s along with an illness will likely wipe you out financially.