Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by refurb 527 days ago
Do you have an example of the government bailing out an insurance company that couldn’t pay claims?

Or an insurance company that went bankrupt?

Insurance companies are already highly regulated (especially in CA). There are regulations around how much money has to be held in reserves to pay claims. There are regulations around what investments can hold reserves in.

Hell in CA, there are regulations around how premiums can actually increase and a mechanism for returning “excess premiums” back to policy holders.

In fact those regulations are one of the reasons insurers are leaving CA. They can’t increase premiums sufficiently to cover risk.

You can read all about them: https://www.insurance.ca.gov/01-consumers/130-laws-regs-hear...

1 comments

> Or an insurance company that went bankrupt?

Yes. There were 6 insurance companies that went bankrupt in Florida in 2022. I am surprised you didn't know insurance companies go bankrupt all the time due to mismanagement.

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2022/11/03/with-climate-im...

Insurance should not be used as a profit source. It is antithetical to the purpose of insurance.

Those are tiny state insurance companies. I was thinking large national ones.

Regardless, the Florida examples are eligible for FIGA insurance that covers claims that insolvent insurer can’t.