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Car insurance is worse actually. In the US if you have an accident with bodily injury the settlement can go in the millions, but the legal limit for car insuran
by ma2rten 11y ago
Car insurance is worse actually. In the US if you have an accident with bodily injury the settlement can go in the millions, but the legal limit for car insurance is as low as 20k. They do the opposite of what insurance should do, hedge against a small risk and leave you unprotected from big risks.
- thaumasiotes 11y ago> They do the opposite of what insurance should do There are a couple of points you seem to be missing: - This insurance works precisely as you say it should, but on a lower scale. In exchange for a fee, it protects you, the holder, from losses too large to easily absorb. If those losses aren't too large for you to absorb, you can post a bond instead of having insurance. - You don't have car insurance for your own benefit. You have it for everyone else's benefit (that's why you're required to have it). It doesn't matter if you get wiped out by the fines resulting from an accident because that's not why you have insurance. The point of your insurance is to make sure that the parties you injure can recover something. The legal limit is therefore set at an appropriate level for that goal. If you want insurance that protects you at a higher level than that, you can easily purchase some with a higher cap.
- jacalata 11y agoThe point of insurance is to protect the person you hit by ensuring someone will pay their costs. If the legal minimum is far below the potential costs, then the insurance is failing at that purpose, because it doesn't matter how many millions you settle for, most people can't pay it to you and being owed by a deadbeat doesn't pay hospital bills.
- xtreme 11y agoShould the legal minimum be close to the highest potential cost? You can cause massive damage if you hit a luxury car, or are involved in a multi-vehicle accident. Should you be forced to carry insurance that would cover these scenarios? That would drive up the premium of the legally required insurance, and likely increase the number of uninsured motorists. Considering most accidents result in rather small payouts, there must be a cost-benefit analysis done to determine the legally required minimum.
- nommm-nommm 11y agoI think a fair legal minimum is the average price of a new car.
- chefkoch 11y agoThe price of the totaled car is by far the smallest sum if you have really injured someone. In germany the default amount your are insured against is 50 or 100 mio €. 20k is a joke.
- Spooky23 11y agoThe property is a trivial cost in comparison to personal injury liability.
- nommm-nommm 11y agoYes, of course! I never claimed otherwise! However, you need some number so I think that makes some sense as a starting point. 20k is the minimum here and that's low in my opinion. Actually now that I think about it there bodily injury is separate from property injury. Here it's 20k property injury and 30k bodily injury are the legal minimums. I just remember being surprised because cars are so expensive it is not hard to do 20k in property damage, just hit a late model car.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- jacalata 11y ago>there must be a cost-benefit analysis done to determine the legally required minimum If you are saying that this is necessary, then I agree. If you are saying it is happening already, then I am skeptical and would like to see evidence.
- chinathrow 11y ago20k? That is madness. It's up to 100 Mio € over here in some european countries.