It’s becoming harder and harder to get a homeowner insurance policy in California. State Farm and Allstate stopped writing new policies, citing wildfire risks. Others are limiting new customers.

And now, several viewers tell San Francisco’s KGO-TV that AAA is not renewing their longtime policies – and it has nothing to do with wildfires.

These homeowners were surprised to find out aircraft and satellites were taking photos over their homes. They were baffled to find out the reasons AAA dropped their coverage – everything from clutter in the yard to draining a swimming pool to save water.

    • atticus88th@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Thats looking like a better option for many industries. Unfortunately those industries have a lot of money to buy politicians and make sure its a failed option.

    • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Private insurance never made sense. The goal is to have the biggest, and most diverse risk pool, so no one event sinks the entire hedge. That means monopoly, and if you have any sort of reasoning capacity, state-run monopoly.

      When private firms say “oh, we’ll only do business in a ‘low-risk’ area”, they’re basically asking the fates to pull something like the New Madrid earthquake on them. There is no substitute for diversified risk.

      I’d also be unsurprised if a lot of modern “risk analysis” is redlining with extra steps.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      We put together a public option, we’d see these shenanigans stop real quick

      You have the California FAIR plan. Its much more expensive than any private offering because they don’t have to follow the rules of private insurers in California. Insurance in California is heavily regulated, especially around premium increases. This is why the insurance companies are pulling out; not because the regulations per se, but the math of how much they can charge, versus how big the risk is, is just too high.

      These companies are greedy af. I can assure you they want to be making money in a trillion dollar market. The point is that they can’t.

      • Hello_there@kbin.social
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        1 year ago
        1. the fair plan is expensive because they fund the properties that insurance won’t fund. That risk pool is greater. There’s a lot of examples of private money taking the low hanging fruit and leaving anything expensive for the public sector to take care of.
        2. These insurance companies have been taking premiums for years, and are now trying to weasel out of coverage to limit costs before an emergency happens. All benefit, no cost. That’s not okay. If they’re concerned about their bottom line, there’s lots they can do - like limiting where they offer policies to only those areas within the urban limit line and excluding places built up in the hills.