Beware! Insurance rates are rising! Read the fine print!!
June 02, 2004
Today my auto insurance came in the mail. I had talked to my agent about my insurance because I was concerned about several factors. One, my insurance rates continue to increase every damn period. This is amazing to me for several reasons.
- I have no tickets
- I have no accidents
- I have had the same insurance carrier for three years.
So I called my friendly State Farm agent and I had a little discussion with him. He understood my concerns and he felt that yes, as a customer in good standing with a spotless record. So he promised to talk to State Farm about a lower rate and get back to me right away.
That was in March.
Today my insurance premiums arrived with this great notice:
Auto Rates Adjusted:
To better server you, auto insurance rates for Washington customers have been adjusted to better reflect claim costs Your premiums will now increase: $53.88.
Which leads me to wonder, how much it would have dropped if I just shut my fucking mouth and didn't talk to my agent in the first place?
Wait it gets worse.
It seems my coverage options have actually dropped under the new plan. Oh I still have uninsured motorist coverage and personal injury protection and even rental coverage. But what really disturbs me is what is explicitly NOT covered.
- I am no longer covered for any fungal attacks of any kind.
- I am no longer covered for nuclear reaction, radiation, radioactive contamination, or detonation or release of radiation from a nuclear or radioactive device.
I did not realize I was not covered for either incident already and I had no thought that I would need to seek such coverage.
Now here is what concerns me about the loss of this coverage. Insurance coverage is based on Actuarial tables which are based on the likelihood of a certain event transpiring. This is why your insurance rates on your car go up when you have several speeding tickets. The idea is that if you have speeding tickets, it increases your likelihood of getting into an accident. They base this on the fact that a significant part of the population involved in traffic accidents have a speeding ticket on their record.
What is freaking me out is that some actuarial guy has figured out the chances of an attack by a giant radioactive fungi is so great that the insurance companies have started to refuse to cover such a scenario.
Will a giant mushroom rise up in Washington to battle with other super creatures such as Godzilla or Mothra? I mean holy crapola, my car and life are at severe risk here, my insurance company just told me to fuck off and there is not a word of this in the newspapers or even the tabloids. I am in danger, all of Washington is in danger and nobody seems to give a shit.
Tomorrow I am calling up my agent and chewing his ass out. First off, I want coverage for radiation damage and fungi attacks and I want lower rates like he promised me. I want to see a copy of his own policy to see how much coverage I am going to need for this brewing controversy.
