Ya, after I sent it I realized that the insurance thread altogether was
getting a bit far afield from Vanagons specifically. I'm sorry I sent it.

John

Allan Streib wrote:
> I'd sooo much like to respond to this but I read it a couple of times and ... nope.... NVC in this post at all.
>
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> On Mon, 03 Aug 2009 10:26 -0500, "John Rodgers" <inua@CHARTER.NET> wrote:
>
>> Don,
>>
>> You are pretty much on target here. Insurance companies are by their
>> very nature organized and designed to make money off of managing risk -
>> and the nano-second the numbers show that you, the so called "customer"
>> ,are not going to be productive and lucrative and profitable for their
>> purposes you get axed in one way or another. And - dare I say it - this
>> same thing parallels the health insurance debate that is going on
>> nationally right now. When the numbers show a "client" moves into the
>> "no-profit zone" the insurance companies dump you out - one way or
>> another. Raise the rates so high you can't pay, or refuse you coverage
>> due to "prior" conditions, and the list goes on. Bottom line: Risk
>> management for the Corporate bottom line profits. The health insurance
>> thing and the automobile insurance thing works the same way - as each
>> gets older - you  - and your car - the less protection you are able to
>> get because the risk to corporate profits increases - and
>> numerically/statistically there comes a point where insurance companies
>> are better rid of you because you are about to cost them money - and
>> they are not going to put up with that. From a health insurance
>> standpoint, this is what pees me off about insurance companies. They
>> will milk you for profits  when you are young, in your prime, and not
>> likely to need any serious medical care, then when you  need them they
>> aren't there - at least for the most part. This is why I support a
>> national health insurance. All the insurance companies blow a lot of
>> smoke about socialized medicine as a scare tactic to prevent this from
>> happening, but we already have a partial one in place that has been
>> operational for 43 years. It's called medicare - and it works pretty
>> good. But you have to be age 65 to qualify. And by the way - Medicare is
>> note free insurance - everyone on it pays a monthly insurance premium of
>> a bit over $100/month taken right out of retirement checks by the
>> treasury department - and that is after paying into medicare during a
>> lifetime of work.. If national budgets were managed well, that coverage
>> could be extended to cover everyone and it would force  insurance
>> companies to be one heck of a lot more competitive, driving the prices
>> down. As for auto insurance - not sure what could be done there. But
>> there are steps one could take. Liability insurance - ya gotta have it.
>> Takes care of the other fellow if you screw up, or a court deems you
>> have screwed up - whether you did in fact or not. Then there is the
>> protection of your own vehicle against loss. As our vehicles age - same
>> as our bodies - and the insurance companies see less and less value in
>> our vehicles or our bodies - it becomes more and more a matter of self
>> reliance. You cannot at that point contract with a company to assume
>> your risk. Once you get my age (70) it's a bit late to set up special
>> savings or IRA's to cover your risks over time, but if you are young or
>> even have children you can set things up for them - and that money will
>> be there to cover such things as vehicle liability, comprehensive and
>> loss, as well as health issues. . But to try and buy insurance to cover
>> such major items as complete vehicle loss or some major health break -
>> it's not going to happen if you and your vehicle have aged to the point
>> of being outside the profit envelope of the insurance companies
>> actuarial tables.
>>
>> My $0.02 for today.
>>
>> John Rodgers
>> 88 GL Driver - with insurance issues
>>
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