Hopping Mad

I am fucking pissed!

We got our notice that our escrow account for the house insurance is short $1,600. We have to shit that before 01Feb07 or our house payment goes up $200 a month.

This is because insurers have discovered, via Katrina, that when something bad happens to the insured while the policy is in effect they have to pay. They are bailing out of Florida like rats off a sinking ship. There is only one insurer left, Citizen's. They are State Funded and can't refuse to write policies.

Once again the potential for something is being used as an excuse to stop doing something else.

And they keep telling us, over and over, that it was the cash outlays from Katrina that made them decide to no longer offer coverage here. Gee, yet again I am paying for someone else's fucking problem!

Why am I touchy about this?

I dunno. Could it be that I believe that one should only be punished for the bad things that one does and should not be held accountable for the actions of others?

And I am not talking about the Katrina victims right now. What happened to the requirement that an insurance company had to have assets enough to cover all their liabilities? And what happened to my friend's $120,000 in premiums since 1950 on his house? Could it be that having that much money laying about was too tempting to leave alone so they gave a huge chunk to Congress to get the laws changed to benefit only the insurance industry? It's especially galling because insurance is the only industry exempt from anti-trust. Look it up. They are also the only industry that I am required by law to purchase from. I cannot have a car or a mortgage without paying insurance. And now I am informed that they can just stop selling because they might have to uphold their end of the agreement? It's just wrong. It's like a life insurance company dumping you because you get sick or, worse, health insurers dumping because there was a bird flu epidemic in another part of the country.

And let's talk about the Katrina victims for a second. I read all about what happened to New Orleans three years before the storm hit. National Geographic had a detailed "what if" article. Gobs of money went into New Orleans to fix the things that needed fixing, Federal money. It wasn't spent on the things that it was meant for and somehow it's MY fault things broke?  I don't control the weather and I didn't misappropriate the dike money.  So, residents of Lake New Orleans, fuck off!  I already paid for the levy that broke, you bought toys instead of shelter and I don't feel I owe you a penny more.

I have the same lack of sympathy for those who got nailed in the 1993 floods in the midwest.  Surveys dating back to the 1800's point out every single place that flooded as FLOOD PLAINS!  What part of FLOOD was so damned hard to understand?  I have even less sympathy for people who didn't take the hint and got nailed again in 1996.

Don't get me wrong, if the risk increases so should the premium.  And the premiums should keep pace with the value of the property.  I have no problem about paying those.  But the premiums should be going to some box labeled with my name.  And the majority of it should return to me or be transferred to a new insurer if the writer gets cold feet and bails.  Any insurance policy should become vested.

What we have now was the insurance companies having less than total ability to pay their liability and essentially borrowing from Peter (me) to pay Paul (New Orleans).  Now they worry that I will get hit and they will not be able to borrow from Paul to pay Peter.