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Is the world becoming uninsurable?

(charleshughsmith.substack.com)
478 points spking | 3 comments | 17 Jan 25 00:32 UTC | HN request time: 0.638s | source
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bluedevil2k ◴[17 Jan 25 01:50 UTC] No.42733208[source]▶
Like we see in California, when the government sets a price ceiling, insurance companies just leave. Same in Florida. If the free market truly was allowed run normally, the insurance rates in Pacific Palisades or on the Florida coast would be so high that no one could afford to live there. Is that a bad thing? If someone was living in a house near where they tested missiles, we'd call them crazy. At what point can we say the same about people building and rebuilding over and over in these disaster areas.
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underwater ◴[17 Jan 25 02:05 UTC] No.42733293[source]▶
Price caps always seem like such a transparent political move.
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mgiampapa ◴[17 Jan 25 02:11 UTC] No.42733332[source]▶
How about profit caps? I feel like government stepping in and being the insurer with a sufficiently large pool of risk to spread around lets them set a fair rate without the need to make a return or answer to shareholders.

To some extent this has helped with health insurance. Each year I get a check back from my insurer saying they didn't spend enough on my care vs my premiums.

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1. JumpCrisscross ◴[17 Jan 25 04:12 UTC] No.42733997[source]▶
> How about profit caps?

Transfers wealth from shareholders, patients and taxpayers to management, bankers and intermediaries.

Broadly speaking, caps are stupid—akin to treating liver enzymes directly when they spike versus seeing them as the sign of deeper problems.

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2. Spivak ◴[17 Jan 25 04:23 UTC] No.42734058[source]▶
I think that's a great metaphor for the situation, when you get a patient running a 105 fever you put them in an ice bath and then consider what underlying problem is ailing them.

You do the first part so they don't die before the long-term treatment kicks in.

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3. JumpCrisscross ◴[17 Jan 25 04:36 UTC] No.42734134[source]▶
Correct. Caps are fine as a short-term measure.

In the long term, they’re putting a patient running a fever on immunosuppressants. The fever will go. But the patient will die.