Rufus wrote:

Finally, my insurance rant: Insurance is becoming a lose/lose-more
proposition for US citizens...
... I'm afraid that to me insurance
companies appear to have stopped offering value and started to collect
extortion.

I couldn't agree with you more.

they don't seem to want to be in their alleged business any more --
that is, the business of gambling, underwriting other people's risks.
instead they seem to be in the business of collecting the money and then
refusing to pay it out if the slightest risk has been taken. their
present focus is not on insuring you against risk, but on trying to
prevent you from taking any. will we see the day when boat insurance
policies prohibit leaving the dock if the wind exceeds 10 kts? or
leaving the dock at all? sour grin

in CA these days, many marinas will not rent you a slip unless you can
show proof of $300K of liability/collision insurance. some Canadian
E Coast insurers, so I hear, are refusing to underwrite any boat with a
wood stove aboard (but they are happy about propane stoves which imho are
far more dangerous). the insurance biz is becoming a racket: coercive,
restrictive, and I fear it may also become mandated (legislation mandating
a captive market for them to plunder).

grmph.

de

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