Poll: Car Insurance

[digitaldiscipline]

Okay, because I'm bitching about it this week, and the lovely elixxir was kvetching about it not so long ago, and my dad was mulling the idea, I'll throw it out for general ponderation:

Five hundred bucks a year, a hundred dollar deductible, no-frills car insurance for arguably non-idiot drivers [non-idiot qualifications pending].

How many of you would go for something like that? Show of hands, please.

*raises hand, and one extra finger at the auto insurance industry as a whole*

Comments

[ivy]

I'd go for it. Currently I pay $200 *a month*. That's what I get for living in expensive DC and having had the bad fortune to be in three accidents, none of which were my fault. (Rear-ended while sitting at a stop light, brakes failed after I'd had the car in the shop for just that the previous day, rear-ended while stopped behind an idiot driver who decided to stop in the middle of the Interstate for no reason.)

[hellsop.livejournal.com]

y0. I'd even take a deductable 3-5 times that and the company can spend the difference on landsharks. I'm know I'm not going to be the one at fault, and am willing say it with my wallet.

[ashengrace.livejournal.com]

How about this.

Those who don't cause accidents (i.e., drive like assholes) don't have to pay insurance at all.

[etcet.livejournal.com]

i agree that the legal =requirement= to be insured is what makes this extortion particularly onerous.

then, to compensate when it's too fucking expensive to get insured, they'll make it more expensive if you've ever had an insurance lapse. . . oh, and if you live somewhere where many people don't have insurance, you get to pay more, in case one of them hits you.

quite a fucking racket, i must say.

[elixxir.livejournal.com]

You know I'm down with that. *shakes fist at insurance industry*

[jruske.livejournal.com]

How about a different approach:

Find a state that will legislate an insurance free zone - in practice you could pay an additional car property tax (say one car payment in cost) which pays for a bond each year to cover any accidents your vehicle incurs.

Damage bonding (like Bail Bonding) is a known practice with decent upside enough to cover downturn costs.

Same state passes caps on damage awards - in connecting with capped fees for medical providers. That reduces a huge cost factor in insurance after all.

Then we allow for the shoot idiots until they are dead rule that says anyone doing something entirely too blatantly stupid and harmful to another person has forfeited their life (aka doing eye makeup while driving 60 mph or slugging down a six pack on the way to the honky tonk bar) - and we remove another huge risk factor, e.g. driving dangerously is socially acceptable.

Finally the state needs to implement one rule that I think would be on several state legislature's agendas if the federal gov't didn't continue to intervene. If you are in an accident, and you are illegally in this country, you go straight to some work camp in Guam or Iraq or South Korea. You don't even have to cause the accident - your mere presence means you get a free plane ticket and a life of contributing to this nation's spreading of the wealth.