I am sure you are all familiar with the commercial where one person delivers some really bad news, and then offers some "good news" by saying that he managed to save money on car insurance by switching to GEICO? I did something like that earlier this week with my health coverage.
The Kenan-Flagler Student Handbook recommends that we purchase our Blue Cross health insurance through a broker called Hill Chesson. Hill Chesson offers UNC students the BlueOptions plan which costs (for me) $121 per month. Some students have recommended that we can get similar coverage for cheaper by going directly to Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.
I did just that. I applied for their Blue Advantage plan the week I arrived in Chapel Hill, a nurse came by earlier this week to take my blood pressure and collect a urine sample. This morning I received an email with a rate quote of $93 per month.
As someone who looks at the world through the tools of what is often mockingly called a "dismal science," I am a big believer that insurance is not an efficient way to allocate costs. Yes, I remember the graphs we studied in economics about why insurance programs "work." They "work" the same way casinos make money, by pooling the risks of many individual customers. But I believe that any insurance program is by nature inefficient for it forces every customer to pay for the incompetence and the bad decisions of other customer. If I were to take the money I have paid for car insurance over the last seven years, and put it in a savings account, I'd have enough money to replace my car at least one and a half times over. The counter argument is "what if you run over a Harvard grad and have to pay punitive damages?" I think it is the "fear factor" of possibly facing a ruinous civil lawsuit that justifies getting car insurance.
A better example is health insurance where beneficiaries that don't take care of themselves, enage in sports that result in frequent injuries, and use controlled substances often raise the average cost for everyone else in the pool. This is why I avoid unnecessary types of insurance (ie renter's insurance) and when I do purchase insurance, I always shop around for the lowest price. Keep in mind that different companies price different individuals differently and some, such as my auto coverage underwriter, AMEX Assurance Company, only cover very low risk individuals.
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4 comments:
Will you be spending that extra $28 at the bar? You seem to frequent it very often? How much is a drink there? How many drinks do you have on average? Does drinking more often make you a higher risk customer? Will you have severe liver damage after 2 years of B-school and "networking" opportunities? Does saving $28 make you feel vindicated against the students that are paying thousands less than you in tuition?
TGIF
No, it doesn't make me feel any less bitter about paying $15,000 more per year than in-staters. I also neglected to mention that married students get to live in the brand spanking new on-campus housing that is literally 100 yards from Kenan-Flagler. The rent is $825 for a two bedroom, all utilities included. And married students are much more likely to be granted in-state status during their second year because they tend to have a spouse that works and pays state taxes.
I will answer your other questions later in a separate blog posting about drinking opportunities at Chapel Hill/ Kenan-Flagler.
I guess it's time to find you a woman Jacob.
i don't know why you brag about being a low-risk auto insurance client while you clearly are one of the poorest drivers on the street. you drive like a banshee and are about as jittery as a lab monkey when the research doctor begins to unlock his cage.
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