Huge losses from national disasters prompt industry to jack up prices and pull back from some markets; ‘worst possible scenario’ for consumers

After Allstate suffered billions of dollars in losses and failed to get the rate increases it wanted, it resorted to the nuclear option. 

The insurance giant threatened last fall to stop renewing auto insurance for customers in three states that hadn’t given in to its demands, which would have left those policyholders scrambling for coverage. The states blinked.

In December, New Jersey approved auto rate increases for Allstate averaging 17%, and New York, a 15% hike. Regulators in California are allowing Allstate to boost auto rates by 30%, but still haven’t decided on its request for a 40% increase in home-insurance rates after the insurer refused to write new policies.

For many Americans, getting insurance for both their cars and homes has gone from a routine, generally manageable expense to a do-or-die ordeal that can strain household budgets.

Non-paywall link

  • Thann@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    In California, you pretty much can’t get fire insurance which is required by mortgages, so only corporations can even buy property here…

    • SoylentBlake@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Idk how true that is, tho it sounds like the exact kind of thing that results from Democrats not thinking about policy downstream and just rubber stamping lobbyist bullshit, and then being blaisé about it when called out. Dems are conciliatory, reactionary with policy. They’ll bend whichever way keeps them in power.

      That being said if that kind of shit thought it could fly in my state I’d go pay some homie hectors from in front of home depot to throw a dozen molotovs each at town hall, the building the police union is in and the courthouses. Bonuses for the guys that actually get a structure fire roaring.

      When all the avenues to redress are jammed up to the point of nonfunctioning, when, by the design of those currently winning, using the protections of our systems likely means bankruptcy; justice delayed IS justice denied

      A society with no regard towards justice will fall by the hands, rightfully, of those that do.

      Lessons from history show that those that enabled, protected or profiteered from that cancerous society will be seen to have aquires that cancer too.

      For all our advanced tech, socially we’re still medieval; societies medicine hasn’t moved beyond the humors…and blood letting

      • curiousaur@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        It’s true, but California established fair plan thats a non-profit and ensures everyone gets accepted. The issue is they charge whatever they have to make it make work, which is triple what the insurance companies are charging. Which means that’s what they should be charging too, but aren’t allowed to.

    • roscoe@startrek.website
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      1 year ago

      You can’t get it in the boonies. I live in a city and my insurance, with an earthquake rider, is only a few hundred a month. My coworker lives in sparsely populated area (by the standards of this metro area) and his insurance costs a little over 7x as much, and continues to rise.

      And it’s deserved too. These people move out there because they’re the type that want to “own land,” but then none of them maintain it. I’ll go over to his house for a party and be in the backyard and everywhere I look, his property and every property it touches, as soon as you go beyond the area immediately around the house that is actually used, the entire ground is covered by kindling. One dropped cigarette and his entire neighborhood is gone.