[sfbay]

Hi Chris, This is a great service for almost 70% of the population who don't know what events are not covered and the fine print gotchas from the insurance companies.

This should be a really helpful service, kudos on the idea.

The only concern I have here is, privacy. Most of the home owners are not comfortable to upload docs that includes their names or property details (easy to know their net worth) from this. Also, how are you managing data security?

Do you have any plans to address these concerns?

[dyim]

Man, I bet it's even higher than 70%.

I was in the hospital in February, and I asked the nurse how much it would cost to drain a subungual hematoma. Nobody knew!

Maybe it would've been free; maybe it would've cost $1,000 - it definitely doesn't feel good to decline a procedure because you have no idea how much it'll cost.

[sethammons]

While this post thread is fire and casualty insurance, when you look ad medical insurance, it is just insane.

I had an appointment at a specialist and I am on a high deductible plan. I called up and asked how much I would be spending. They refused to tell me. I tried this again, and another person refused. "We can't know how much it will cost."

So I went in and asked. Same line. "It matters what happens in the appointment and if you have any treatments." "Sure, but what about the base cost assuming nothing else happens?" "We can't say." "Look lady, I'm needing to know if I can afford this. I don't need exacts. I need ballparks. $100? $500? $1000? $5000?" "Oh, i can't imagine it will be that much?" "Which?" "I can't say."

I needed the appointment, so I went in blind. Came back out, and they literally couldn't figure out what to charge me. "We don't see a deductible..." Yeah, I am from an HSA and have a high deductible plan." "Um, no change at this time. We will send you an invoice." Turned out to be $50.

With such price transparency, we will never fix things in the US.

While the problem is not as crazy on property insurance, it is still subject to complexities. Different policies have different exclusions and different riders. You can't just compare apples to apples. Heck, even auto insurance has nuances. Some only pay out if you are driving your own car while others will pay out for any car you happen to be driving.

[chrisplotz]

I've seen "haven't read my policy" numbers in the 80s and 90s depending on the survey. And yes - we're property insurance people but know that health can be even crazier. I understand a lot of the times the price for the procedure isn't really decided until they find out who's paying for it.

[chrisplotz]

Thanks!

You make a really good point on privacy - insurance is a trust business and managing this right is really important. We delete Dec pages w/in 30 days (we don't need to keep them past giving you the advice), so that's a start and something we don't mention on the site but should. We also never expose user data, or show you what you've uploaded.

Unfortunately though to get insurance advice, property details are pretty important, and if you are concerned with your Liability coverage net worth is pretty important for a service to know too. What we don't need are names - actually people could black out that personal info (even address) and it would be fine!

[nickpsecurity]

"(even address)"

I thought geography factored into deciding premiums since different areas had different risks of specific events that would lead to an insurance payout. Does what you all are doing simply not need that? Or are you saying that analysis can be left off if they desire for privacy?

Edit: Thanks for the info!

[chrisplotz]

Geography is important, but your specific street address isn't required for this tool. And really, most insurance pricing is done at a higher level than street address (zip, or insurer-defined territories) so actually it is one of the last bits of info needed. For rough advice as this gives, we don't need it.

[ddispaltro]

Dan at Goodcover.

The later. It's a factor for insurance premiums, because being in an urban landscape vs a wooded area has a massively different fire risk.