On Tue, 26 Feb 2008 07:28:48 -0800, Dan Best
wrote:

An interesting concept perhaps, an insurance co-op. Members get billed
not a set annual bill, but a small overhead plus their share of the
losses that occurred over the past pick a time period with the
verifiable list of those losses posted somewhere.

That's sort of how Lloyds of London works as I understand it, except
that members share in the premium revenue as well. An insurance co-op
would have to be managed as a business of course, or it would quickly
fail. One major problem is that the co-op would likely pick up the
riskiest business out there unless members were thoroughly screened
and vetted. There are reasons why large companies will not ensure
ferro cement construction. A provision for loss reserves would also
need to be established so that members could not pick and choose the
losses they would cover. To be successful the co-op would end up
looking a lot like an insurance company with all that implies.