Car insurance is relatively simple. I shop around, telling them how much coverage I want. They request my driving history, and give me a quote. At any time, I can shop around and change insurance policies without any problems. Once it’s time to collect payment, it’s a relatively simple matter. What makes health insurance so difficult, controlling, unreliable, and expensive? For example, with health insurance:

  • Can only shop during a specific enrollment period

  • Policies are so complex, the vast majority of the population can’t understand them

  • It’s commonly provided in part by the employer because buying a policy otherwise is prohibitively expensive

  • Insurance companies are notorious for denying payments

  • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    178
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    Car insurance isn’t efficient nor effective. It’s a complete ripoff.

    Go file a claim, see how much grief they put you through. Every claim I’ve ever made, I’ve had to file a complaint with the state insurance regulators to get my insurance company to reimburse me (and I’ve never been at fault).

    Insurance is the problem for both cars and health. They artificially inflate pricing for both, because they get to determine what is paid and at what rates (especially for health care).

    It’s why you hear stories of things like tylenol at the hospital being $10 a pill. Since insurance may only reimburse the hospital at 10% of the filed claim, the hospital increases the cost 10x. (It’s more complex that this, it’s why medical coding is a specific job now, finding ways to code things to get sufficiently reimbursed).

    • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      23
      ·
      edit-2
      4 months ago

      My sister lives in British Columbia, and from what I’ve heard, they have single-payer provincial government run car insurance (in addition to health insurance like the rest of Canada). It sounds awesome.

      • Fonzie!@ttrpg.network
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        Now I think of it, it’s odd that British Colombia is nowhere near either Brittain nor Colombia

    • Hildegarde@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      29
      arrow-down
      8
      ·
      4 months ago

      I have made two claims with my insurance and they paid without any pushback. I think that’s just your insurance company. I would highly encourage you to name and shame.

      • fuckwit_mcbumcrumble@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        20
        arrow-down
        6
        ·
        4 months ago

        Yeah I’ve also had 0 issues with my insurance the two times I’ve used them.

        Hell when I went to a repair shop I insisted on only OEM parts and the guy there said insurance typically wouldn’t replace that part OEM. But when I asked them about it they said they were happy to keep things 100% OEM.

    • Montagge@lemmy.zip
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      14
      ·
      4 months ago

      I also had to get the state involved when the insurance agent just wouldn’t return my calls

    • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      5
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Might be your company, I’ve had 3 not at fault and 1 at fault accident and I’ve never had any issues with the insurance company paying out. In fact, my insurance has always been super chill about it, and the two not at faults that involved another driver both had the opposing insurance company tried to screw around to get out of paying.

      • HelixDab2@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        4 months ago

        I’ve had 3 not at fault and 1 at fault accident

        A number of states have moved to ‘no fault’ insurance, with the claim that it would save everyone money. Surprise, insurance rates go up, sharply, and insurance companies end up being less responsive to claims.

    • DBT@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      How do you file a complaint? I had frame swap that cost almost 20k a couple years ago after getting rear ended and my insurance said the diminished value was only 60 bucks. I never even cashed the check I was so pissed.

      • ChapulinColorado@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        I agree that insurance companies are a scam, but it sounds like you had the work done before repairs and shops were agreed on? Insurance companies generally work like that…

        • DBT@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 months ago

          I did not. I went to one of their “approved” shops and they paid them directly.

    • taiyang@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      4 months ago

      I also have to say I’ve had only good experiences with my current insurance provider (Amica) but I also pay a little more. My mom got an at fault accident in my car she borrowed when her car was in the shop and it was handled without complaint nor did they raise my rates.

      But you’re still right about a lot of others. I’m almost certain GEICO or Progressive would have raised mine. I wish it was regulated such that my experience is the mandatory norm.

    • finley@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      45
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      4 months ago

      Because rich people on large corporations refuse to pay their fair share of taxes

    • Dem Bosain@midwest.social
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      4 months ago

      Because the American system provides for a rich ecosystem of middlemen and lobbyists. If we switch to Universal Healthcare, what will they do? Code?

    • yemmly@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      4 months ago

      No one knows, but for sure the reason is something rotten. I’ve never ever heard a reasonable argument against it.

    • abbadon420@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      3
      ·
      4 months ago

      Not the entire “first world” has universal health care. The Netherlands for example has only 62% UFC. Which is fairly managable in paractice, with proper regulations and support for thos ewho can’t pay the €120 obligatory monthly insurance fee, but obviously it’s complete bullshit.

  • Xeroxchasechase@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    50
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    4 months ago

    So many explanations, but here’s a summary: The concept of the efficiency of free markets is an illussion. Especially in conditions of guaranteed damand

  • snooggums@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    36
    ·
    4 months ago

    By tying insurance to employment (side effect of some economic policy) the option to shop around was removed. When people are already forced to use the insurance provided by employment so that they can afford it, there is no way for some other insurance agency to be competitive. Then it just got worse over the years.

    The ACA attempting to make a competitive market was a half assed substitute for just going all in on single payer, but at least people with the jobs that don’t provide insurance have the possibility of affording it now so it is better. Just getting stabbed instead of being shot better.

  • Ziggurat@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    4 months ago

    You, don’t have any bargaining power regarding your health. Let’s say you broke a arm, a Mundane thing. You’re in pain, and would do anything to make it stop. Once they give you some morphine, you’re high and can’t take any reasonable decision.

    Moreover, you can decide to thrash away a car, it happens all the time, you can’t do it with your life.

  • BlackLaZoR@kbin.run
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    30
    ·
    4 months ago

    Because it’s rigged against you. US has the most expensive health care in the world - It’s not natural, this is crafted oligopoly to gouge the prices

  • HobbitFoot @thelemmy.club
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    4 months ago

    Can only shop during a specific enrollment period.

    With most other insurance, it only pays out of something unplanned happens. With health insurance, there are medical issues that can be known about in advance of them being to be addressed. So you might know you have a heart condition that needs to be operated on soon, but not immediately. This is known as a medical precondition.

    Before the ACA was passed, health insurance companies would always exclude medical preconditions. So, if you switched insurance while needing that heart operation, you would find that you weren’t covered and have to pay all the costs.

    The ACA got rid of being able to limit coverage of medical preconditions, but it needed to provide a way for insurance companies to limit their exposure to people switching from a bad plan to an amazing plan that covered everything and would have to pay out immediately. To handle that, it made it a requirement for all people to get a minimum amount of medical insurance and to restrict when people could shop for insurance.

  • Shimitar@feddit.it
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    15
    ·
    4 months ago

    Not all cars and drivers have accidents, but everybody in his/hers life WILL need health care of some kind

  • bluGill@kbin.run
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    ·
    4 months ago

    Because the customer and user are not the same people and insurance is keeping the costomer happy. High prices mean I cannot afford to quit my job or retire early. I have to have a job to have any form of insurance at all. It is great for the hr department that buys my insurance. In theory I can buy my own on the market but that means the thousand dollars a month my employer is paying gets thrown away.

  • mkwt@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    6
    arrow-down
    1
    ·
    4 months ago

    Can only shop during a specific enrollment period

    With cars it’s relatively easy to determine if a particular collision occurred before or after you bought insurance. It’s also very hard to predict exactly when these commissions will occur. Consequently, it is not so easy to delay and only buy a policy when you already have a claim ready to go.

    With many progressive diseases, it’s much easier to wait and only buy insurance if you think it’s going to be expensive, but haven’t been diagnosed with anything yet. That’s why health insurance has open enrollment periods.